We'll Always Have Paris: American Tourists in France since 1930

397 Pages·2004·2.13 MB·English

by  Harvey Levenstein

we’ll always have paris

We’ll
Always
Have
Paris
american
tourists
in france
since 1930
harvey
levenstein
The University of Chicago Press
Chicago and London
F
harvey levensteinis professor emeritus of history at McMaster University in Hamilton,
Ontario. He is the author of a number of books, including Revolution at the Table; Paradox of
Plenty; and Seductive Journey: American Tourists in France from Jefferson to the Jazz Age,the first
volume of the two-volume study of American tourists in France, published by the University
of Chicago Press.
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2004by The University of Chicago Press
All rights reserved. Published 2004
Printed in the United States of America
13121110090807060504 12345
isbn: 0-226-47378-3(cloth)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Levenstein, Harvey A., 1938–
We’ll always have Paris : American tourists in France since 1930/Harvey Levenstein.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn0-226-47378-3(alk. paper)
1. Americans—France—History—20th century. 2. Tourism—France—History—20th
century. 3. France—Foreign public opinion, American. 4. United States—Foreign pub-
lic opinion, French. 5. National characteristics, French. 6. National characteristics,
American. 7. France—Social life and customs—20th century. I. Title.
DC34.5.A44L492004
914.404′81′08913—dc22
2004003493
øThe paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American
National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library
Materials, ansiz39.48-1992.
For Mona

contents
Preface ix
1
great depression follies
one It Sometimes Rains in Nice 3
two The Return of the Middle Classes 25
three “Beautiful Beyond Belief”: Cultural Tourism Survives 41
four Watching the World Go By 54
2
war and revival
five Martial Visitors 73
six A Tattered Welcome Mat 94
seven Searching for Sartre 114
eight “Coca-Colonization” and Its Discontents 131
nine “What Country Has So Much to Offer?” 153
ten “Bandwagons Work like Magic in Tourism” 179
3
loving and hating
eleven The Worms Turn: 1962–72 203
twelve “This Space Ship Is Going to Paris” 222
thirteen Bouncing Back: The 1980s 241
fourteen Postmodern Tourism 262
fifteen Nobody’s Perfect 277
Abbreviations for Frequently Cited Sources 289
Notes 291
Index 363

preface
I sent the completed manuscript of this book to the publisher in April 2003,
some days after American troops occupied Baghdad. I kicked myself, of
course, for not finishing the book earlier. Not only did it help explain the
virulence of the wave of Francophobia prompted by the French refusal to
support the United States in this venture; it also showed, I thought, how
there was little chance that the crisis would dim the special allure that trav-
eling to France has always had for many Americans.
My previous book, Seductive Journey: American Tourists in France from Jef-
ferson to the Jazz Age,shows how in the nineteenth and early twentieth cen-
turies American tourists to France would often return with tales of how the
French played fast and loose with morality. World War I saw such negative
views reinforced, as many of the over 1million American troops—the so-
called doughboys—who served in France returned from there convinced
that the French were immoral, dishonest, and ungrateful for their help. The
wave of American tourists who flooded into France during the 1920s helped
reinforce these convictions as, particularly in Paris, they encountered a host
of people who seemed out to cheat them at every turn. In this volumeI show
how these ideas, along with disgust over French people’s standards of per-
sonal hygiene and their apparent propensity to eat revolting foods, persisted
through the Great Depression of the 1930s and blossomed again after
World War II. Many GIs returned from France full of unkind stories that
were not unlike those of the doughboys, and a new wave of tourists revived
many of the complaints of their prewar predecessors.
Added to this was the widespread belief that the French were inveterate
anti-Americans, a conviction buttressed by such things as French politi-
cians’ attacks on Coca-Cola and the appearance of “Yankee Go Home”
graffiti on French walls. Although the American media usually linked these
to pro-Communism, in fact much of this French anti-Americanism echoed
ideas that had arisen in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, long
before the rise of the French Communist party.1Indeed, by the 1930s the
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