© Jacquelyn Martin/APUS, French and Washington DC flags fly across the street from the White House.
- French attitude to Iran creates distrust on Capitol Hill
François Hollande and Barack Obama were seeking to put images of cheese-eating surrender monkeys and awkward marital situations behind them, as they began an unusually warm three-day state visit at the home of Thomas Jefferson on Monday.
The two presidents declared theirs to be the new special relationship, in a joint newspaper column that focused on improved military co-operation between the US and what Washington officials now rarely fail to call America's "oldest ally".
"A decade ago, few would have imagined our two countries working so closely together in so many ways," they wrote, pointing to French support for planned US-led strikes in Syria that Britain refused to back, leaving Obama looking keenly for a reliable foreign partner.
Privately, officials were even more flattering. "We've come a long way from freedom fries," said one senior US administration official on Monday, referring to animosity that followed French opposition to George W Bush's invasion of Iraq. "The alliance has grown by leaps and bounds," the official added, in a conference call with reporters.
Observers of Washington's diplomatic ups and downs with Paris say shared views over intervention in the Middle East and Africa represent a reduced appetite for US commitment as much as any French muscle-flexing.
"It's as if they have turned 180 degrees in the last 10 years," said Heather Conley, a former state department official now with Washington's Center for Strategic and International Studies. "Back then it was the US leading militarily in Afghanistan and Iraq and a decade later we see the French leading the way militarily in Libya, Mali, the Central African Republic and even last year in Syria."
Yet the challenges facing Hollande as he attempts to capitalise on the unusual warmth between the two governments go beyond the much-publicised protocol awkwardness that followed his leaked affair and subsequent split from his long-term partner, Valérie Trierweiler.
Social secretaries were forced to rip up invitations to a formal dinner that were printed before the couple split and will have to find someone else to sit next to Obama at the tented banquet on the south lawn of the White House on Tuesday.
But at least Hollande still got an invite, a hallmark of a rare state visit that traditionally includes a trip on Air Force One with the president to a venue outside Washington - in this case Monticello, the home of Jefferson, who served as America's minister to France.
Unlike all other recent French presidents on state visits or even Germany's chancellor Angela Merkel in 2009, who made an "official" visit - the next tier down the diplomatic pecking order - Hollande has not been invited to address Congress.
Both House speaker John Boehner, whose office traditionally extends the invitation, and the White House insist this is merely the result of scheduling problems: implying that Hollande's decision to visit Silicon Valley on the final day of his visit left no time for the five-minute drive from the White House to Capitol Hill.
Equally plausibly, some blame Boehner's lack of interest in entertaining European socialists or his need to find a way to extend America's national debt limit in the narrow legislative window before the Presidents Day recess.
© Jose Luis Magana/APFrench President François Hollande arrives at Andrews Air Force Base, in Maryland.
Even the White House recognises the danger of allowing France to circumvent further sanctions before a fragile nuclear deal with Iran is delivered.
"Businesses know there will be sanctions [on them] if they get ahead of this process," said a senior administration official.
Hollande may find an unusually pragmatic bilateral with Obama when the pair meet for talks on Wednesday, but there are plenty in Washington wondering still whether this is a marriage of convenience.
Oh this is BS! They are not 'oldest allies'. They are allies of convenience. Pure and simple.