America: a founding myth of my adult life

The United States: an essential country in my youth

The United States was an important country in my youth and the start of my professional life. Nearly 40 years later, I wanted to revisit the cities that had left their mark on me:

• Minneapolis
• Philadelphia
• San Francisco
• New York

My trips to the United States have been more about life than tourism. Let me tell you about my own America! A different kind of travel.

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The United States: a founding myth of my adult life

In the ’80s, like many of my generation, the United States was a myth. Our parents remembered the Americans who had come to save Europe from Nazism and helped rebuild it through the Marshall Plan. Some baby-boomers were nostalgic for the freedom movement that had swept across American campuses in the 70s.

European generation X’s fascination with America in the 80s

For my generation X, the American series broadcast on our six TV channels shaped our childhood imaginations of this country, which was still an uncontested leader of the Western world. Seen from France, everything there seemed more beautiful, modern, and dynamic.

Against this backdrop, I first visited the USA in 1981, then again for a year in 1985 for my studies, and then on numerous occasions as part of my first business trips. So, I have an attachment to this country that goes far beyond what one feels after a simple tourist trip.

My 2000s disappointment for America

In the 2000s and 2010s, I only returned to the USA for short professional stints that didn’t allow me to feel the country’s pulse.

From then on, I distanced myself from the United States. The country had taken paths that appealed to me less. Economic liberalism, increasingly exacerbated, has created a highly unequal society that shocks me. Trump’s rise to power, the rise of the Tea Party and MAGA movements, the defense of gun ownership, and the poor military choices in Iraq and Afghanistan are all images of America that have contributed to my detachment from this country. The fascination of my generation was gone.

In 2022: take stock with a trip to America

That’s why in 2022, with more time on my hands, I decided to take a long trip of almost a month and return to the cities that had marked my youth.

My first objective was to see how much the country had changed, but it was a tsunami of emotions and I realized that my adult life choices have been influenced, more than I thought, by my first American sojourns. My travels in the United States helped build me.

Minneapolis and Minnesota: my American family cradle

My discovery of the United States dates back to 1981, when I first traveled to the Twin Cities in Minnesota. Why this part of the country? It’s not one of the major tourist destinations. Other Americans often deride it for its extreme winter climate and flat terrain. No tourist worth his salt would go there, let alone on his first trip to the USA! In my case, the reason is a family history—a very beautiful history!

Verne and Rosemary: a post-war friendship

This story goes back to 1949, long before I was born. Back then, my paternal grandmother lived with her five children, aged from 14 to 21, in Grenoble. She had been widowed in 1940, because her husband had died of tuberculosis at the age of 37. She, therefore, had to find sources of income to support her large family.

That’s why she decided to take in foreign students and offer them a place to stay. The students came and went in the cheerful atmosphere my grandmother had created in her modest apartment.

One student stood out from the rest: Verne, who had arrived with his wife Rosemary. He was 28 years old and an American. He had served in the Second World War as a Bombardier pilot and, in gratitude, the American administration had offered him a year’s university studies in Grenoble. Needless to say, he was a hero to my father and his brother, aged 18 and 16 respectively.

It was the beginning of a long and solid friendship. Verne and Rosemary always kept in touch with my grandmother and her children. Because of the distance, the relationship was mainly epistolary but regular.

My first stay with Verne and Rosemary

In the summer of 1981, Verne and Rosemary invited me to spend a month with them at their home in White Bear Lake, Minnesota. I’d never seen them, and all I knew was the story. Since 1949, they had had four daughters, followed by three sons who were about my age. I was welcomed like a member of the family and, despite my still hesitant English, our exchanges were rich and imbued with solid affection. They remained so forever!

My last visit to the “Twin Cities” was in 2012, shortly before Verne’s death and the following year for Rosemary. I was happy to be able to see them again and say goodbye. My grandmother and father also left a long time ago, but the story of our 70-year family friendship continues through the generations. So my 2022 trip had to include a visit to my American sisters and brothers.

Why do I love Minnesota?

Minnesota is, above all, the state of 10,000 lakes. They’re everywhere! Some are still wild, and others are lined with typical American wooden houses in the middle of forests. The quality of life is excellent.

The best of the American way of life

What I particularly appreciate about Minnesota is the American way of life in all its simplicity and the best it has to offer. Of course, I was able to love it because I spent long periods there with my American family.

Minnesota isn’t a place to visit, it’s a place to experience. In summer, it’s backyard barbecues, swimming or canoeing, and long nature walks. The water in the lakes is renowned for its purity. You can dive in without worry.

Winter is my favorite season!

But Minnesota is also winter. It’s harsh and endless, and I love it! The lakes are frozen and become new playgrounds for ice skating or cross-country skiing, as in Sweden, my other beloved country.

Minnesota: a progressive land

The Midwest is known as a conservative and religious region. Minnesota is an exception, with the Twin Cities being a progressive Democratic stronghold. Minnesota has one of the best-maintained public infrastructures in the United States. The death penalty has been abolished, and it was the only state in the region not to vote for Trump in 2016.

Twin cities to discover

Minneapolis and its sister city of St. Paul are small cities by U.S. standards. They’re not major tourist attractions, but they’re fun to walk around. An interesting feature is to be found in Minneapolis, where a parallel city has been built on high ground! You can stroll from one building to the next via a wide network of skyways, which in the middle of winter means you can shop in an environment sheltered from the elements.

Minnesota: a great place to live

The various indicators of quality of life, especially health, show that Minnesota is one of the most privileged places in the United States, and I’ve felt good every time I’ve been there.

As I’ve always been to Minnesota for family visits, I only have a few photos to share with you. If you’d like to visit Minnesota, I suggest you check out Lindsey’s blog, who’s a local in the state!

Philadelphia: my transition from university to working life

Philadelphia is known as the cradle of American independence. It was even the capital of the United States before it moved to Washington D.C. At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, Philadelphia took part in the country’s industrial revolution. Since then, the city has grown in the shadow of New York, only 130 km away.

My one-year stay in Philadelphia in 1985 and 1986

It has a special place in my heart, as I lived there for a year between 1985 and 1986. It was also my first long experience of life away from my parents’ family home. It was the kind of break we don’t get anymore with the ease of communication we have today.

In those days, letters took eight to ten days to cross the Atlantic, and telephone calls were prohibitively expensive. The feeling of a change of scenery was inevitably much more intense, and I’m glad I could experience it.

A stay in three stages

My stay was divided into three parts: studying at the Wharton School, discovering the country with Delta, and working at the Philadelphia airport.

Studying at the Wharton School

In 1985, I was an MBA student at HEC. I had been selected to take part in an exchange program with the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, or Penn for short, for a semester.

Since then, cultural differences with the European university system have faded. Today, even the graduation ceremony, with its gowns and headdresses, has been imported to France. In my opinion, what’s understandable in the American context becomes ridiculous here because it’s not our history!

My biggest surprise was to discover the spontaneity of the students. No one hesitated to approach the other in a friendly way, and no one censored themselves during class. There were no stupid or judgmental questions from the students. A freedom of tone that was lacking in French schools.

Penn University’s campus is one of the oldest in the country. It features the same Gothic architecture as Harvard. The historic buildings are arranged around the Locust Walk, a pedestrian thoroughfare.

I lived in a house in West-Philae with other students, a concept still unknown in France. I spent much time with my friend Nicolas, who shared the same passion for transport.

Time to discover the country with Delta Airlines

At the end of my study semester, I took advantage of an amazing offer from Delta Airlines. For a relatively low price, the company offered young people under 26 living abroad a pass that gave them unlimited stand-by travel on its entire network for 30 days. Needless to say, I made the most of it!

I traveled like crazy, visiting San Francisco, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Fort Lauderdale. This pass allowed me to spend Christmas with my American family in Minneapolis. On the last day of my pass, just for the pleasure of flying, I flew by small propeller plane to northern Maine. With Delta Airlines, I could discover the country from the air and indulge my passion for planes.

What I didn’t know was that Delta Airlines would become an essential company in my professional life. Years later, I would often visit its Atlanta headquarters for business meetings, as Delta Airlines had become the American partner of Air France, my employer, with the creation of SkyTeam.

Fate reserves winks that we only understand later in life. Thank you, Delta!

Working at Philadelphia Airport

The special feature of my visa was that I could work for a company in the United States for the same length of time as my studies. When I arrived in Philadelphia, I sent many applications in the transport and tourism sectors, but the replies were all negative. At the end of my studies, companies had not yet taken on long-term internships. I also felt unpleasant as a foreigner whose finding a job became more complicated because of additional obstacles linked to administration, language, or cultural habits. It was a formative experience to understand how an emigrant can feel.

Thanks to a Wharton professor, I managed to secure a six-month internship at Philadelphia Airport at the last minute. I was tasked with conducting various marketing studies, such as tracking customer satisfaction with the airport-to-city train service inaugurated shortly before. My professional life was launched!

From my office window, I couldn’t get enough of the ballet of US Air planes based in Philadelphia.

Why I love Philadelphia?

Philadelphia has a provincial feel, but it’s a great city to live in.

Campus life that stands on its own

In Philadelphia, I first enjoyed the campus life at Penn University. During my studies at Wharton, I lived in a bit of a vacuum, as everything is geared towards studying, relaxing, playing sports and socializing. I had little time to go anywhere else in the city or the country. In 2022, I returned to the campus and found the same atmosphere as in 1985, with students still the same age! It felt strange.

Philadelphia: a city steeped in history

It wasn’t until I worked at the airport that I really discovered the city. Little known to French tourists, it played an essential role in creating the United States. It’s one of the few American cities where you get a sense of history in this very young country, and that made it endearing to me.

Philadelphia hasn’t changed much since the ’80s

Many of the places I frequented in the 80s have remained unchanged. Philadelphia has evolved rather less than other American cities.

I loved strolling through the historic center, especially Elfreth’s Alley, Philadelphia’s oldest street, dating back to the early 18th century. At the end of a long, majestic avenue is the Museum of Art, well worth a visit, with works by famous painters such as Picasso and Monet. The view from the museum’s impressive entrance steps is well worth the detour.

A real market like in Europe

One of my favorite places in Philadelphia was the Reading Terminal Market , which is a covered market like you’d find in Europe, but very rarely in the United States. It’s where I used to go shopping. It’s home to the Amish, a religious community that lives in self-sufficiency and rejects technical progress. Many of them have settled in Pennsylvania and come to Reading Terminal to sell their organic produce!

San Francisco: the first steps in my professional life

San Francisco has a special role for me because it’s closely associated with the beginnings of my professional life.

My UTA French Airlines period

Just after my year-long stay in Philadelphia, I was hired by UTA French Airlines when they opened the Paris—San Francisco—Papeete route. For this project, I was asked to prepare the communication plan for the cargo offer.

Then, in 1989, when UTA was taken over by Air France, I was sent on a three-month assignment to San Francisco to help the Cargo Manager of the American market. This gave me enough time to feel at home and explore the city in depth.

A carefree expatriate life

This short period introduced me to expatriate life as it exists less and less, with a very comfortable lifestyle. I lived at Le Meridien in a suite bigger than my studio apartment in the Paris suburbs at the time!

Outside of work, I mostly hung out with colleagues my own age who were young Frenchmen doing their national service as corporate volunteers. We had a lot of fun, but we were in a jar without really integrating into the city as I had done in Minneapolis or Philadelphia. It was a bit frustrating! So, I know more about the city, which is magnificent, than I do about its inhabitants.

From San Francisco I’ m nostalgic for an easygoing, carefree life. I was working for an airline like I’d always dreamed of and the takeover of UTA French Airlines by Air France opened up great career prospects for me. I hadn’t yet had to face the inevitable obstacles, and sometimes disappointments, of a professional life in a major corporation.

What I love about San Francisco

What I liked about San Francisco was first and foremost its setting. The city is very hilly and surrounded by a beautiful bay. The proximity of nature and the sea is part of the city’s charm, with its huge parks like Golden Gate Park and its Japanese garden, or the Presidio of San Francisco.

San Francisco: a walker’s paradise

On the weekend in San Francisco, I walked because the city is a paradise for urban trekkers. It’s all uphill and downhill, with different atmospheres in different neighborhoods. I loved going on adventures and following the streets as my inspiration. The views, like those from Twin Peaks, are spectacular.

A must: the Golden Gate

Although I’ve visited it many times, I have never been tired of looking at the Golden Gate Bridge. It’s one of the most successful works of art I know of anywhere in the world.

San Francisco is a city that has changed a lot

Unlike Philadelphia, I found that the city has changed significantly in 30 years.

Castro remains the city’s gay district, but it has become gentrified. As real estate prices have risen, the population has aged, and the atmosphere has become wiser and more relaxed. I went there for Halloween in 2022. Everyone was dressed up in every style, from the most sophisticated to the most ridiculous, but everyone’s gaze was benevolent. . C’est une grosse différence avec Paris où l’on sent que l’on est jugé par rapport à l’élégance de sa tenue.

San Francisco’s bohemian side at risk

The slightly rebellious, progressive spirit of the city that I loved in 1989 is still there, but this bohemian side is gradually disappearing. Because of its proximity to Silicon Valley, San Francisco is a wealthy city and has become one of the most expensive in the United States, especially for housing.

Too many homeless left behind

At the other end of the spectrum, in 2020, the city had 92 homeless people per 10,000 inhabitants. Along with New York City, this is one of the highest rates in the country. The homeless are concentrated in the Tenderloin district, a veritable court of miracles. What’s shocking is not so much the number of homeless but their mental state, as most of them are under the influence of drugs. In 2022, I passed through it, but I had to walk fast to get out of the way. I don’t remember this being the case in the 80s?

A city both too rich and too poor

Too rich and too poor, San Francisco needs to find a new way forward if it is to remain the most attractive city in the United States. The hippie spirit that contributed to its reputation is long gone, and the Haight-Ashbury district, which was its epicenter, has become touristy and less attractive.

Despite everything, San Francisco is still a city I love, and I was happy to see it again in 2022.

New York: my city of hearts

Last but not least: there’s one last city for which I have a huge attachment to New York. Along with Paris and Stockholm, it’s one of my three favorite cities.

My first trip in 1981

I first went to New York in 1981. I was 19 years old, and it was my first trip alone without my family or being welcomed by someone I knew.

After the dark days of the ’70s, when the population declined, the city was on the verge of bankruptcy and crime exploded, New York had a very bad reputation. I was staying in a YMCA, a local youth hostel, and I knew better than to go out at night, as it was too dangerous! Despite this context, I fell in love with the city. I immediately fell in love with its skyscrapers and energy. I walked around it with the walkman on my ears, which I’d just bought at a much lower price than you could get in France at the time. It was magical and still extraordinary to be able to do so at the time.

The city I visited most regularly in the United States

Since then, I’ ve returned regularly, mostly for work and sometimes just for pleasure.

One of our most memorable visits was in January 2002. Thanks to my husband, we took advantage of an offer from the Air France frequent flyer program for a return trip on Concorde. It is a unique and extraordinary experience in itself. This time, we also visited the site of the September 11, 2001 tragedy: Ground Zero. Emotions were still running high, and we had no idea what the future would hold for the world after such an event.

New York is the only American city I’ve been to with my father in 1989 and my mother in 2011. We have strong memories that we keep with my sister, who was also with us.

At the end of my 2022 trip, I set myself a new goal: to return to New York, but for an extended period of several weeks, or even months, in order to better immerse myself in the city as if I were living there.

What I love about New York

Every time I go to New York, I feel an intense emotion that can’t be explained. I never tire of wandering the streets of Manhattan as my inspiration takes me. I love watching the crowds and the diversity of characters the city offers, where you don’t judge yourself. Everyone adopts the look they want.

A city in perpetual motion

New York is a city in constant evolution, with some buildings disappearing to make way for others. The most emblematic is, of course, the new World Trade Center, with the footprints of the destroyed towers beside it. But there are also less tragic places, such as the transformation of the High Line, a magnificent pedestrian promenade on an old railway line.

A city with neighborhoods like Paris

As in Paris, I appreciate the possibility of changing atmospheres in New York as you move from the wealthy, bourgeois East Side to Chinatown, Harlem or Greenwich Village.

A maritime city turned towards the world

In New York, I love the presence of the sea and water. One of my favorite walks is along theHudson River to the tip of Battery Park. From there, you can take the ferry to Staten Island, New York’s most rural district, to see the Statue of Liberty, as well as Ellis Island, one of the city’s most moving landmarks, where immigrants used to disembark, waiting in anguish for the American authorities’ decision on whether or not to accept them for a new life in America.

New York’s unmissable nightlife

New York is all about night. I love the city’s luminous atmosphere, with its must-see Times Square, which remains spectacular despite the overcrowding of tourists. In the early years of my professional life, I chose to stay at the Novotel, where the view over Times Square was extraordinary. Today, it’s called the M Social Hotel Times Square.

An intense cultural life

New York is home tocountless museums and exhibitions. My favorite is the Modern Art Museum, or Moma, where I go every time I visit.

Finally, New York is a city of shows: whether it’s a musical on Broadway or an opera at Lincoln Center, I tried as much as possible to attend one evening during each of my stays!

The only downside: an overpriced city

New York’s biggest drawback is the rising cost of living, which is gradually making it unaffordable. It’s an evolution that I’ve noticed especially in the last twenty years, and one that saddens me.

The voyage of 2022: a glimpse into my past

The major directions of a life are often decided in one’s twenties. For me, these are the 80s. In this decade, I completed my university studies and entered working life. It was a time of goals and dreams. The United States was my inspiration and my first playground as an adult.

My travels in the U.S. shaped the beginning of my adult life

The trip I took in 2022 made me realize just how far I’ve come in forty years. I realized how much my American travels have structured my life.

The United States often provokes contrasting reactions: people either love or hate this superpower, which at once welcomes foreigners to its shores and imposes its vision of the world and its lifestyle, sometimes brutally and cynically.

The United States: a country I’ve grown attached to

With my trip to 2022, I took the time to wander around and talk to people. This enabled me to grasp the complexity of this country, and to find the right balance between the slightly naive enthusiasm of my youth and my overly binary rejection of the not always happy developments in the United States.

If there’s one thing I love more than anything else in the United States, it’s the warmth of first contact. Americans are really good at it, and it helps me forgive some of their many excesses.

Is this a coincidence? But throughout my trip, the music played in the bars and restaurants I frequented was that of the 80s!

Giving time back to travel

The journey is often geographical, but sometimes it takes on a temporal dimension. In this case, it becomes more intimate, richer and more intense. In this article, for reasons of modesty, I haven’t told you everything about what I experienced in the USA in the 80s and the emotions I felt when I returned there in 2022. That’s my secret garden!

I hope my story will inspire my younger readers, in particular, to invent their own journeys through study, work, or human relationships.