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French journalists explore rural U.S.
By GLENN TANNER, P-I Staff Writer

French journalists Gilles Bouvaist (left) and Antoine Agasse are introduced at Monday night’s meeting of the Henry County Commission, which they watched from the gallery. In the background is Terry Pierce.

Two French journalists recently made Paris, Tenn., one of their four stops as they try to get to the heart of how the upcoming presidential elections may go.

Antoine Agasse and Gilles Bouvaist are traveling through four states as they gather material for an article about the upcoming U.S. presidential election.

“The idea was to talk about the big issues of the next presidential election,” Bouvaist said as the two visited The Post-Intelligencer Monday morning.

Bouvaist said the stories typically written in French papers about American politics are created in big cities like New York.

Yet, they said, it was the smaller cities and towns across the rural United States that had elected George W. Bush to two terms in office.

With that in mind, the two took to the road to get a sense of what rural Americans are feeling about the coming election.

When they’ve finished, the two hope to sell the story to the Web site of the French newspaper Le Monde.

Paris, Tenn., was the second stop on what was a tour of American Parises.

Their research trip began in Paris, Ky., with the two arriving here during the weekend.

While in town, they interviewed people like Henry County Mayor Brent Greer and P-I Editor/Publisher Michael Williams before attending a meeting of the Henry County Commission Monday night.

They were set to leave this morning for Paris, Ark., before finishing in Paris, Texas.

“It’s a sort of running joke,” Agasse said. “We’ve going from Paris to Paris, then we go from Paris to Paris. On the twenty-fourth we fly back to New York, then I’ll be going back to Paris (France).”

Agasse said he got the idea for the story while working as a financial reporter for the Agence France-Presse in New York, after meeting an analyst from London, Ark. — named for another famous European city.

He said most people in the French city don’t realize there are any towns named Paris in the United States.

For example, many think that the movie “Paris, Texas” is set in both Paris, France, and the state of Texas.

They hope the novelty and humor of there actually being American versions of the iconic French city will attract readers.

“At the same time we want to talk about the people (here),” Bouvaist said.

Agasse said he noticed the difference between New York City and the rest of the United States when he was treated better when he traveled outside New York to places like Vermont.

“Every time I left New York, the people were much friendlier,” he said.

It was an attitude similar to what they had experienced at home.

Both Agasse and Bouvaist come from smaller cities in France, and they said they are familiar with the gulf between a large, metropolitan city and smaller cities.

Agasse is from Nantes, while Bouvaist hails from Bordeaux — both port cities on the western coast of France.

“I come from a city of five thousand people, and we have the same kind of problems,” he said “People in Paris are not very friendly.”

Neither Agasse nor Bouvaist, who has been in the United States since June, have had any significant problems adapting to U.S. culture.

“You have a way of life that’s very similar to France,” Agasse said. “We have McDonald’s, we have Coca-Cola.”

In contrast, Agasse said he’d traveled to India, where he had much more problems adapting to the lifestyle and food.

Agasse also said neither he nor Bouvaist encountered any “French bashing” during their travels.

“I’ve been to Chicago, Seattle and San Francisco,” Agasse said. “People are always very nice.”

Agasse said they planned to visit the Eiffel Tower replica in Paris, Texas.

Of course, the two had visited Tennessee’s own Eiffel Tower in Memorial Park, and were favorably impressed.

“It’s pretty,” Agasse said. “It’s well done. It’s smaller, of course, but it’s very well done.”

From The Paris Post Intelligencer of Paris Tennessee.