The Laughing Wolf

Not everything is as it appears.

I am currently living in France as an expatriate; my company moved me here about 6 weeks ago.

Yesterday, I went on a bike ride and had the opportunity to talk with a 50-ish year old French woman. We talked about pets (since I'm still learning French, I managed to say "I am a cat" rather than "I have a cat"), but we also briefly discussed politics. She brought up how Michael Moore won the award in Cannes for "Farenheight 9/11", but she also brought up the impending D-Day ceremonies. She expressed her appreciation for what the US had done 60 years ago, and she said that while she may not agree with the politics now, they are JUST politics. She is still appreciative.

Yes, this is only one person, but... all nations are made up of individual people. We are losing sight of that.

I have yet to run into ANYONE here in France who has said to me "the US is evil" or even "the US is wrong". More often than not, I'm hearing "war is terrible", but I am not hearing what many bloggers seem to think is the general attitude in France, which is the French hate the US. That has not been what I have observed AT ALL.

I guess I should post about this on my blog, but I'm tired of posting about all the hate that I'm reading everywhere else.