So wrong

It took me much time to realize but eventually I’ve got to admit it: I had it wrong all the way! Since I’ve been meeting and exchanging with Americans, I’ve tried relentlessly to convince many of them that the French weren’t particularly “anti-American”. And yet, in the eyes of most Americans, if there’s one country they will think of as the perfect embodiment of anti-Americanism, it is France.

After I’ve read so many times in the blogosphere or in so many of the American MSM, after I’ve heard it innumerable times on the radios or on TVs that the French “hated” America and Americans, I’ve come to the conclusion that the case is hopeless and it was better to leave it that way.

Yes, this use of the word “hatred” by many Americans when describing how they think the French see them has always got me puzzled. Like the people we see on this painting by Renoir were innate American haters…

We could then question why over 3 millions Americans have come this year to visit France, the country which, many believe, is the one they think is the most virulent detractor of their own as well as the most critical of Americans. Not only that, but the French are also the most snooty and condescending people, as every self-respecting American knows.

But paradoxically, isn’t this misperception and prejudice the best cement between our two countries? Like the polarization force that keeps us attracted to each others? So many American tourists travel to France only to return home and tell how surprised they were not to meet the slightest sign of “anti-Americanism”. And yet, after dozens of millions Americans have visited France, the prejudice lingers on.

Well, that’s fine with me. There seems to be an enduring feeling of eerie estrangement with the French that keeps them apart of the other members of the European pack. If so many Americans believe the French hate them, so be it. Deep inside, isn’t it another way of asking for love?

Note: The picture is « Bal au Moulin de la Galette, Montmartre » (1876) by Auguste Renoir in Musée d’Orsay, Paris.