Believe me, it’s not pathological hatred. You would feel the difference if France as a nation hated the United States the way it once hated Germany.
What we have here - on both sides of the ocean if I may say so - is a mix of irritation at the other nation’s pretense to be right, many incomprehensions of the way the other nation sees things, a fierce sense of each nation’s identity, a common but different sense of some Historical mission, a fierce pride of what each nation acheived and how it achieved it.
To make a long story short, we are very much alike, so we make a point to put the emphasis on what little differences we have.
Good points. Much like the UK, the US and France have many common points. So it in some way the little spat between us is like two (or three) brothers arguing amongst themselves. They may yell, scream or wrestle on the ground with each other, but God help who ever tried to fight one of them. For the other two would soundly thump the intruder, and go back to arguing.