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Letter to the editor

Putting in a good word for the French

By PHILIP GAILEY
Published May 8, 2005

PARIS - Will it lead to my name being added to the no-fly list or a flag on my passport? Will someone ask the FBI to eavesdrop on my phone calls or snoop around to see what kind of books I've been reading lately? Will Tom DeLay and Donald Rumsfeld question my patriotism? I know it's risky, but I want to put in a good word for the French. Not the French politicians and leftist intellectuals and cultural snobs. I'm talking about the French people.

We arrived in Paris on vacation a little anxious about what to expect. Since our last visit, a few months after 9/11, relations between Washington and Paris, always a little testy, have deteriorated over George W. Bush's decision to go to war in Iraq. We had heard stories about rising anti-Americanism in France - anecdotes about American tourists being subjected to insults and indignities from strangers.

We experienced not a single sneer or act of rudeness. To the contrary, the French people were friendly and helpful, and I'm not talking about just the ones interested in the content of our wallets. More than once total strangers, sensing that we were lost as we struggled with a city map, came up and asked if they could help. They offered a friendly smile and instructions in English (my French is limited to about a half-dozen words) on how to reach the bistro or open-air market we were trying to find.

The only rude encounter we had in France was with the exchange rate. The dollar has lost about a third of its value against the Euro.

As we walked around the city, we came upon some familiar names - Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy, all of whom have streets named after them. FDR even has his name on a subway station. Hollywood movies are big here, and so is American television fare. You can catch Law & Order on cable TV (I didn't realize Detective Lennie Briscoe spoke perfect French). A McDonald's is not hard to find. Obviously, the French don't hate everything American.

The French have much to be proud of. Paris is a city rich in cultural treasures, including some of the world's great museums, and its food is to die for (which I would do if I ate it everyday). And not just its haute cuisine. Anyone from the American South would feel at home in the city's bistros, where the menu includes such items as rabbit, sauerkraut, ham hocks with lima beans and sausage made from chitterlings. Even better, dogs are welcomed. Any place that allows dogs in restaurants tops my list of civilized societies.

I'm not naive. My weeklong experience here is not meant to be the definitive word on anything. France hasn't been much of a U.S. ally since the American Revolution, and like any other country, it has its share of jerks. The French tend to stereotype Americans, just as we stereotype them. Like much of Europe, they loathe President Bush and his neocon gang, but so do many Americans. Their resentments appear to be directed more at the Bush administration than the American people. Americans would do well to make a distinction between the Chirac government and the French people instead of changing the name of french fries to freedom fries and boycotting French wine and cheese - a silly reaction from the world's only superpower.

If the national mood in France is a little sour these days, it may have less to do with the state of U.S.-French relations than with the country's own problems. France has a sluggish economy, high unemployment and immigration problems, especially the influx of Muslims.

President Jacques Chirac is desperately trying to swing public opinion toward ratification of the European Union's constitution in a May 29 referendum. A rejection, which polls say could be the outcome, would weaken France politically and economically, Chirac is warning. He suggested that his countrymen need to break out of their "culture of pessimism" and take a lesson from America's optimism. Chirac told reporters, "Our American friends speak about their successes but never their difficulties. When you have this culture of pessimism, naturally it does not foster creativity."

Chirac has a point - Americans are optimists, especially when it comes to dieting. They haven't met a diet they haven't tried. In one respect, Americans wish they were more like the French, who enjoy red meat, butter, cheese, bread and desserts and somehow manage to stay thin. Now that's one resentment of the French I can relate to.

Philip Gailey's e-mail address is gailey@sptimes.com

[Last modified May 8, 2005, 00:46:16]