Frites de liberté

Europe | Many in France are fried about President Bush | Mark Bergin

PARIS - From "Freedom fries" to economic boycotts to not-so-subtle jabs in pop culture (see Ocean's Twelve), American distaste for all things French has grown considerably since President Jacques Chirac staunchly opposed the U.S.-led war in Iraq. We are better than them, so the thinking goes, because we are spine-backed realists rather than naïve jellyfish.

But what do the French think of us?

In the Paris suburb of Vincennes last week, a middle-aged woman with a small dog named Dongo sat outside the Café Le Marigny, puffing a cigarette and sipping a cocktail. She smiled warmly and answered coolly when an American couple at a neighboring table struck up a casual conversation—mostly in English. "You are obviously American," she told the young husband, noting his layer of winter flab and his University of Texas Longhorns ball cap.