The French were only really good once and that was under Napoleon. They were poor fighters before, and even worse after. If they had been better at war and building empires than the Saxons, then they would not have lost the first world war (Seven Years'), and all of North America would be French speaking.
Well, they did come through once in America's favor during our revolution. If not for that we'd have possibly lost the war and we Yanks would all be currently rooting for the Queen to live a few more decades in order to keep the Bonnie Prince Charles offstage a little longer.