While the sentence is technically ambiguous, we say ambiguous things all the time and still manage to understand one another. This is the domain of the study of

While the sentence is technically ambiguous, we say ambiguous things all the time and still manage to understand one another. This is the domain of the study of Pragmatics. In natural communication, we START by assuming that the speaker had a meaningful intention, and then attempt to infer that meaning from context and assumptions about shared knowledge. I can easily think of contexts in which your "French citizens" sentence make sense.