The French post WW II buro-state is not yet dead, but its cultural death twitchings have already started. Le Pen is getting popular as the only option to reduce immigration and the loss of old France. The pension bomb is nearer exploding there. The 10% young Muslim immigrants are not assimilating.

Glad you and Shelly had a good time; prolly still a few more years available, if you only go to the nice areas. Like Disneyland, maybe.

I agree the French are good people. But it would take a blind man to not see they are running their civilization into the ground.

Perhaps we are so angry at them because we Americans really do respect French culture and intellect and are horrified to see them committ cultural suicide.

I love Paris, too, but really, there are many cities of equal or greater beauty. Trust me. I've been to them. :)

I don't particularly like recent French foreign policy either, but I find anti-French sentiment in the US completely inexplicable and unjustified. With the exception of the possibly insufficient government and public response to outbreaks of antisemitism among the french arab population, there is absolutely no justification for French bashing in America. And the idea that the French government had a some sort of moral obligation to override the overwhelming wishes of its citizenry and endorse the Bush administration's foreign policy is completely undemocratic (similar to Wolfowitz's statement last summer that the Turkish military should have ignored the vote of its parliament).

I wish everybody who is outraged to find that the rest of the world is unenthusiastic about rubberstamping all of US foreign policy would simply recall the saying, that I used to hear a lot from conservatives, about absolute power corrupting absolutely.

Right markus, antisemitism is ONLY among the french arab population. That is why non-arabs nearly voted in anti-semite, fascist Le Pen.

Americans don't hate the French. They DISLIKE the French because the French so hate Americans and American culture. Americans are also horrified to see a repeat of the 20th century, where a civilized, educated nation is sliding into savagery.

Think of France's anti-semitism, its reflexive anti-Americanism from its academies to its government, its economic breakdown, the alligence of large parts of the popultion to Islamism, the thousands of elderly that perished in 90 degree weather and the lack of outrage among the french that grandma and grandpa died because their nation is too broke to afford central air.

We are witnessing the suicide of a great culture. How can we not be repulsed?

That is why non-arabs nearly voted in anti-semite, fascist Le Pen.

I was there on the day of the election. Only one in five people voted for Le Pen. And believe me, Paris was very happy that Chirac won even though (at least at that time) they didn't like him much.

ABC --
1) do you mean the French are as ignorant about the deaths caused by the heat wave of 2003 as Americans are about the deaths of hundreds of elderly for the same reasons in Chicago in 1995?http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/443213in.html

2) I see very little antisemitism coming from non-arabs in europe. And La Pen drew his support from people opposed to his anti-arab stance. I even recall that he made an appeal to french jews based on that stance.

3) reflexive french anti-americanism is as stupid as reflexive american anti-francoism. the problem on both sides is an unwillingness to deal in ambiguities.

I dream of a new revolution in France led by the ilkes of Sabine Herold and friends. Until then...

Come on guys, lay off the French. Where's the challenge?

Semper Fi

I love Paris too, of course. That's why I have been there so many times and regret the decline. It is a beuatiful city, although personally I prefer Prague and Venice visually.

Maruks, I was living in Chicago during the summer of 1995. The heat wave caused a huge uproar. The city opened 40 or so emergency cooling stations for the elderly and infirm. The whole world knew that this was going on -- we got a call from our friends in Quito, Ecuador, asking whether we were all right. The heat-related deaths were front page news for weeks. The mayor was on television every night advising people to check on their friends and realtives. Chirac, by contrast, was on vacation.

My wife is French and I've gotten to know her friends and relatives so I've had very mixed feelings about the obnoxiousness of Chirac and de Villepin.

Le Pen got his vote mainly because Lionel Jospin (the Socialist, expected to easily defeat Chirac) could not bring himself to talk about "insecurite" (crime, identified in the public mind with young Arabs).

Nicholas Sarkozy is now the best bet to replace Chirac, and he may bring in a very different sort of administration. But that's not for a while yet.

Two decent if imperfect films one can rent to look at France are "Whatever" (badly translated title, but based on the always provocative Michel Houellebecq's novel -- the same author who was prosecuted for mocking Islam, as was Oriana Fallacci) and "La Haine" (or "Hate") which gives a sort of whitewashed but very well done atmospheric visit to an HLM.

French authors who are CRITICAL of anti-Americanism (and are bestsellers in France) include Jean Revel, Pascal Bruckner, and Bernard-Henri Levy (all available in translation).

The situation isn't simple, even in regards to the Muslim youth. Right now to identify with "jihad" is fashionable, like Black Power was in the 1960s with black teenagers in the US. Rap music reinforces this, and of course deadend adolescent males always want to be seen as "dangerous," anywhere in the world. Will it pass, or the phenomenon's temperature cool down?

I'm not sure, or not sure how soon. Most likely the worst ones will become gangsters, not join in some worldwide jihad.

I agree with Roger. Venice was one of the cities I had in mind when I posted earlier. There are others, too. Besides, it's just silly to say which city is most beautiful or cultured. There is room for subjectivity there, especially since so many cities are the home of great art and architecture.

it's just silly to say which city is most beautiful or cultured.

It is the most beautiful city I have personally seen. It's a completely subjective statement, and I don't think it's silly. Paris surely is more beautiful than Detroit. :)

I have mixed reactions to the French, as well. I have gotten to the point where I am able to segregate the political landscape of France from its cultural features in my mind. I have a real appreciation for a great deal of French music (Edith Piaf and Yan Thiessen come to mind), French filmmakers (Jan-Pierre Jeunet, Luc Besson, Jean-Luc Godard), and French food. French political and philosophical thought(although with some very notable exceptions), on the other hand, leaves a lot to be desired.

I think it's important to be able to appreciate certain aspects of another people and their culture while still being aware of the flaws that are inherent to their way of thinking.

On my long hard slog through Vietnam last year, it seemed like there were French people everywhere, (not that there’s anything wrong with it /haha). In Hanoi I became roommates with a French guy who had been a U.N. peacekeeper in Kosovo. Of the several French people I spent time with there, all disliked Chirac a great deal, thought their last election was “shameful”, and felt American foreign policy was basically positive. One thing I noticed in terms of a gross generality was that the French were far more frugal than most others slogging around. The peacekeeper dude kept complaining that the Vietnamese were ripping him at every turn, and was actually pissed off when a vendor “overcharged” him five cents for a bottle of water. Amuzing.

The most interesting or disturbing thing about the election to me was Le Pen's strength predominately in eastern France (next to Germany).