BHL Finds a Basic Difference Between America and France

The average French person's standard canned response to any (perceived) criticism is to say that in America, it is the same or in America, it is worse. Adding (usually with scorn and bitterness in their voices) that French-bashing is ubiquitous in America (or has been so since the Iraq crisis). Not so, BHL tells Nils Minkmar (dankeschön zu Chakman).

Frankfurter Allgemeine: As an atheistic French Jewish intellectual, you do not exactly fit the description of the kind of person who people in rural American like seeing coming up their driveway. How were you treated?

BHL: With a lot more warmth than an American on a similar journey in France could expect. There were hardly any personal animosities or Francophobic comments.