Multi-lingual site with a splash (language select screen) at the root
Well that was easy enough.  I had forgotten about the .htaccess in the subfolders.  Everything works like planned now.

public/.htaccess (redirects to craft.php if file doesn't exist)
public/index.html (splash page)
public/craft.php (craft loader)

public/fr/.htaccess (redirects to index.php if file doesn't exist)
public/fr/index.php (craft loader for french)

public/en/.htaccess (redirects to index.php if file doesn't exist)
public/en/index.php (craft loader for english)