Donerail, I only have to believe you for what is concerning your country. It's a fact that a lot of people in France have their own opinion about the USA, and unfortunatly it's often a bad one.

Well, I admit I've never been in the US but every American I've known left me a good impression. Some were pretty much cultured than me or my friends. In that way I don't want to be biased by what I can see on French TV about America, which I believe to be subjective. That's why I prefer to speak -or write- directly to people, and why not travell there. I just want to have my own judgment about what I see, read or hear and not about what is being reported to me.

I think in most of the cases, the famous US-France dislike is much a misunderstanding than a real aversion. People don't like because they don't know eachother.

I've red a book which I think is very interesting both for the French and for North-Americans. You probably already know it : it's called "Sixty Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong". This book isn't an apology of France and French, it only explains WHAT they are and why.
It's very interesting for foreigners who are taught with their own references and concepts how works France and what are its values. It's also intersting for the French as me who can therefor realize how we are seen abroad, and what is so original for the foreigners, which we cannot think about just because we are used to it.

I'd appreciate such a book would exist to explain so well the United States for the French !