During the war, the Nazis would often loot shops and houses. This lead to terrible food shortages. In fact, the average Frenchman would be in a POW camp. In Nice a black market had developed, letting the rich French and the Nazis live a life of luxury, while the rest of France were hungry, cold, and poor.

The bombing didn't help either. The land was devastated and farming was much, much more difficult. Even rationing didn't do much to help. Women in local communities teamed up to face daily difficulties in their lives, especially coping with the loss of their husbands.

In the earlier stages of the war, Jews, Belgians, and the Dutch had fled to Paris for protection. Only the very rich had cars, or carriages. Most walked with their essentials. There was theft, riots, and mugging, as all the French Police had fled and left the area. With food eaten by refugees, and the Jewish ones being sent to camps, towns were filled with fear.

Eventually, civilians decided they had had enough. Able bodied men and women in their towns joined up to fight back. At first, it was only per small town, but resistance groups teamed up to sabotage the nazi occupants.

The nazis did not take kindly to this. Much like in the middle ages with the Catholic heretic burnings, people suspected of being in the resistance were shot or imprisoned with little to no trial. While the French still had control of crimes like stealing, military offences were punishable by death.

All in all, it wasn't as bad as a Jewish person, but life in France was terrible unless you were rich or Nazi. Bribes were common, and corruption rates were very high. Unless you were on the good side of the black market, you would have lived in a terrible, terrible crisis.