[Lauratealeaf]

Just think: France lost out on the tourist dollars of four fairly well-to-do tourists (my sister, her hubby and another couple). And, knowing my sister, she was ready to spend freely. Lavishly, as a matter of fact. And that money went into the coffers of the UK and Ireland, not France. I hope more people emulate them.

My niece just went to London with her boyfriend and his family a few weeks ago. Actually the war started while they were over there. My niece got engaged on the Thames! So they had a great time and the money went to the UK.

The UK is much cleaner than France too. I like the food better. Because we were stationed just a few hours from France's border I went on a lot of day trips to the Alsace region and bought some beautiful things.

But, that was before I knew better. The people in that area of France seemed a lot friendlier than they did in Paris. My friends who are still in Germany have stopped their outings to France so I know that they must be noticing the absence of Americans.

[Timeout]

We found the opposite. In October, no one in Paris ever broached the subject of U.S. policy toward Iraq. Nor in Brittany.

It was in southern and central France---the Dordogne and Loire regions---where we ran into the anti-American sentiments. Mostly it was people sitting at tables next to us in retaurants, one was a woman at her news stand. They would just butt in and start telling us George Bush is "dangeroux" or "Americans just don't understand how the world works.

I like to think that today those people are left wondering what world they were living in....Rummy would call it the "Old World". I just hope they're saying: "Je pense que je suis abusif".