I'm genuinely surprised that you've met so many people in France who apparently have (or had) such a rose tainted view of the US. That said I suspect this cuts both ways and there's plenty of American capitalists selling a version of European culture.
Reading this, it makes me think of Auntie Anne's. I don't know if they're in France, but they have over a thousand locations worldwide. Here in the southwest US, there's one in a mall a few towns over. Soft pretzels are a longstanding staple in Pennsylvania Dutch country, and I remember when it was a regional chain there (In high school, in the early 90s, I was in an afterschool club, and we would often send one of the kids who could drive on a "pretzel run"). But now, you can buy a pretzel bucket topped with oreos, and it feels like the "PA dutchness" of it all has been lost, or worse is more marketing, and it's just another chain with a calculated appeal to the broadest possible market. And yet part of me would still love to get a Glazin' Raisin pretzel again.
I'm genuinely surprised that you've met so many people in France who apparently have (or had) such a rose tainted view of the US. That said I suspect this cuts both ways and there's plenty of American capitalists selling a version of European culture.
Reading this, it makes me think of Auntie Anne's. I don't know if they're in France, but they have over a thousand locations worldwide. Here in the southwest US, there's one in a mall a few towns over. Soft pretzels are a longstanding staple in Pennsylvania Dutch country, and I remember when it was a regional chain there (In high school, in the early 90s, I was in an afterschool club, and we would often send one of the kids who could drive on a "pretzel run"). But now, you can buy a pretzel bucket topped with oreos, and it feels like the "PA dutchness" of it all has been lost, or worse is more marketing, and it's just another chain with a calculated appeal to the broadest possible market. And yet part of me would still love to get a Glazin' Raisin pretzel again.