What did The Verve Pipe mean when they sang, “We were nearly Frenchmen”?

It contemplates an alternate history where the Axis powers were able to secure a permanent new power structure in Europe, and the Vichy government continued to rule France and, by extension, had sympathizers in the French-speaking parts of Quebec. Since members of the band liked to go across the border in school for drinking and partying, they felt that, had things turned out differently, they might consider themselves Frenchmen.

Or you misheard the lyric. Could be either one.