Many of us have relatives who died during World War II trying to save these people from the mess they got themselves into. There seems to be little acknowlegement, much less appreciation, for what they did.
The woman who followed us up the street was in Sarlat, the Dordogne region. Somewhere else in the Dordogne, we were looking at a magazine prominently displayed at a news stand. It looked just like our TIME magazine, with a very sinister looking Bush on the cover under the headline: "Is this man dangereux?". (The obvious answer was YES!) We were chuckling at it when a total stranger came up and started arguing with us that the headline WAS TRUE! She was waving her hands and shouting...we just walked away.
Another was a woman on a train near Limoges. I also recall a woman in a restaurant in the Loire...maybe Saumur. She and her husband were at an adjoining table. She asked if we were American and then brought up President Bush.
We didn't support him, did we? Well, yes, we told her. She went on shaking her head and asking didn't we see how stupid and unsophisitcated he is? His poor understanding of the world is dangerous...well, you know the rest.
Now that I think about it, it's interesting that they were all women...I can't remember that a man ever brought up politics. Anyway, we had never encountered anything like it. Determined not to let it spoil our fun, we just brushed it off. I'll add that we are not "touristy" Americans. We both speak (poor) French and we never ask for ketchup with our frites. :)