ntempt for American mercantilism, and the small-minded pursuit of wealth and liberty instead of a more Gallic pursuit of la gloire, is just an echo of that old “nation of shopkeepers” jibe. The French have been hating the English for far longer, and with greater venom, than they ever hated the Americans.
Indeed, the French in many ways love American culture, from jazz to Hollywood, even if that love sometimes takes a bizarre Jerry-Lewis-like form. And, witness de Tocqueville, they’re perfectly capable of celebrating the particularly vibrant style of American democracy.
As for the Avenue Franklin Roosevelt, well, there’s also an Avenue Winston Churchill, but I’d bet that most French would be more willing to pay generous tribute to the US role in their liberation than to the British role. As, come to that, would most Americans. The key figure in here is of course De Gaulle, who, having spent the best part of the war feeling humiliated in London, decided that the way forward for France was to set itself politically against les Anglo-Saxons. Not les Americains – les Anglo-Saxons.
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