My experience was quite different when I visited in the early '80s. I was quite young and hung out with a young French crowd. During the day, they listened to a French radio station that played only American pop/rock music. At night we walked through the streets of Paris with them singing the lyrics of American pop songs in English. I wasn't able to sing with them because I had never mermerized the words, but they had in a language that was not their native tongue.
I don't think the French hate the US as much as they have great envy of our success and influence in the world. The days of French dominance over the political and cultural life of Europe are long over. They just cannot adjust to their new role as a secondary player. The EU was the dream of France once again dominating Europe, but even they are not willing to make the sacrifices that role would require.
France is sliding into economic and political decay. But hey--c'est la vie.
It seems they rejected it because it was "too right-wing" yet we would have rejected it because it was "too socialist" for the Anglo-Saxon world...