STE. MERE EGLISE, France, June 3 (UPI) -- Pvt. John Steele still dangles in effigy from his parachute high on the roof of the church of this old French market town. But this year, as the 59th anniversary of D-Day approaches, he is a fairly lonely American in this part of the world.
With French-American relations perhaps worse than they have been in 40 years or more -- and with presidents George W. Bush and Jacques Chirac apparently still unable to forgive each other over Iraq at the G8 summit in Evian Monday --U.S. tourists are staying away from the June 6 commemorations in Normandy in droves.
The number of Americans registering at the information office in Ste. Mere Eglise in March last year, for instance, was 845; this March it was just 260. In April the comparison was no better. Hotels report their bookings are only just starting to pick up, after a disastrous few months.
It is true that last year's D-Day anniversary was quite a big one, when Bush came to visit, and next year's 60th will be even bigger, perhaps the last major official D-Day event in Normandy. And it is true that the threat of terrorism, the SARS virus, and anti-Americanism generally are combining to encourage more Americans to stay closer to home this year.
But if Americans at home are angrily boycotting French restaurants, pouring French wine down the sewers and refusing to mention the word 'French' together with 'fries', here in Normandy the sense is one of real sadness that the relationship has gone flat.
"Personally, the French are as nice to me as they have ever been, perhaps nicer," said Michael Steignitz, of Joplin, Mo., as he carried two warm baguettes across the town square to his hotel. "But I've been coming here for years and I've never had to watch what I say quite as much as I have this time."
"I don't particularly agree with Bush but you get the feeling the French think ALL Americans support attacking Iraq. You just sense you better not start talking politics. I never felt that before."
Phillippe Buquet, proprietor of the John Steele Hotel, said he didn't agree with the war but he didn't want to fall out with the Americans.
"Its sad," he said. "I haven't had any cancellations (from Americans), but I know some people who have. I hope we can sort this out"
Ste. Mere Eglise, population 1,585, achieved fame on June 5 and June 6, 1944, when the 82nd Airborne Division landed in the area to seal off the western side of the main U.S. landing areas at Omaha and Utah beaches. Many paratroopers landed miles from their objectives, and they were not supposed to take the town. But many landed there anyway, including in the heart of the town where a house fire illuminated the whole of the main square.
Several American soldiers were killed by German troops as they hit the ground, unable to immediately free themselves from their parachute rigging. Private Steele landed on the church roof and witnessed the killings below. As immortalized in the movie "The Longest Day" (and played by Red Buttons) Steele was himself shot in the foot and forced to hang in his harness for two hours. Pretending to be dead, the sound of the church bells only inches away from his ear partially deafened him. He was cut down and briefly captured by German soldiers but was quickly reunited by advancing 82nd troops.
Steele, who died in 1969, never got to see how his experience became permanently displayed on the church. His effigy has arguably become one of the most singular and emotional focal points of the whole concept of American commitment and sacrifice to the liberation of Europe in World War II. He is now one of the most photographed of D-Day tourist sites.
Two U.S. airborne museums and the nearby American war cemetery of Colville-sur-Mer, containing the graves of 9,386 US soldiers and a further 1,000 unidentified American troops, ensure that the people of Ste. Mere Eglise remain among the most pro-American in France.
Curiously, while the number of American visitors to the Airborne Museum has gone down over the last three years the number of French visitors has increased, particularly in the last 12 months. Official gate receipts show 16,682 visitors in April, for instance, nearly 3,000 more than in April, 2002, or in the corresponding previous two years. Eighty-five percent are French, according to Roger Delarocque, official of the local visitors office.
"My view is that a lot more French are bringing their children, and many of them are older children," he said. "I think it is a reaction to all this negative talk about Americans. You know the newspapers and television show it all the time, and young people say Americans are bad, they are always fighting and killing.
"So the parents bring them here to show them what the Americans sacrificed."
It is a personal relationship, a 'blood bond', said Delarocque, between America and France that will not go away because the governments had a disagreement.
Renee Earles, a U.S. press official in Paris was unable to provide overall U.S. visitor statistics to France, but while she agreed the trend was down she said that personal and anecdotal evidence showed that many of the French were going out of their way to show American visitors how much they were appreciated.
French, American, British and other allied plans for next year's 60th anniversary of D-Day are not yet known, but it is expected that allied diplomats will seek to make major efforts to use it to reaffirm the fundamental strength of the transatlantic alliance.
