>>> but "French", even in France today, is but a loose collection of mutually-comprehensible dialects. That's simply not the case. A lot of effort has been mad

>>> but "French", even in France today, is but a loose collection of mutually-comprehensible dialects. That's simply not the case. A lot of effort has been made by the French Republic to spread the standard french language (mandatory school with class in french, even for kids speaking regional dialects). Nowadays, there are still local expressions and idioms, but the vocabulary is quite homogeneous.