I have four sons, 17 to 25 and like all good sons, they're conservative and they've always scoffed at anything "French".
It felt really weird, but just this past weekend, I interupted the youngest during some light hearted comment about France and mentioned to him that we ought to all take a couple of month's vacation from ridiculing France and give Sarkozy a chance to make a difference. I'm not sure he's ever heard me speak up for France and I'm really not sure that I ever have!!
Just seems fair to give them a chance to prove they're not the cheese eating surrender monkey's that Chirac made them all seem like. A couple of months, that's all :-)
Apropos your kid's remarks...IMHO a nutty attitude. You ought to ask them If you or they had been fighting in our American Revolution would they have turned down a French Musket, French Powder and Shot, French Boots, a French overcoat or blanket, French rations, the help of Rochambeau or deGrasse, or Lafayette, French loans, French Ships like the Bonhomme Richard?
Also, claiming to be a conservative has nothing to do with loving, or despising the French, or anyone else, for that matter.
Mais oui, Froggy can be a bit hard to take. But you know, in exchange for bailing out our butts with England, and giving us that deal on Louisiana, we ought to cut them a lot of slack. In fact, I am shocked, shocked I tell you that apparently not a man-jack of them is studying French, or planning a visit to Club Med.