There are streets in Paris commemorating Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy.
There are no corresponding streets in Washington D.C., for all that it was designed by a French urbanist, apart from Lafayette Square (it really should be de la Fayette Square). Rochambeau is ignored. Not remembered at all is the man who did the most for the American revolution, and arguably paid for it with his life, Louis XVI.
Related posts:
Most of the Americans tend to ignore the strong relationship of the USA with France, and prefer to rely on their special relationship with Britain. It has been so for several centuries: The French protestant industrialist families (e.g. DuPont) have made every efforts to have people forgetting their French descent, and even as of today, I know a US prof in Marketing with a French name who does evreything to have it forgotten too.
Shame, for I think Americans and French people have a lot more in common than the brits do, in many respect.
Well, there isn’t a Churchill Street in DC either, or Victoria. The special relationship with Britain is mostly a result of massive British investment in US infrastructure (e.g. railways) in the second half of the 19th century.
The way I see it, this would be more of a consequence than a cause: the French may well have invested in it instead of the Brits otherwise…
I can certainly understand the absence of a Victoria street in DC. There is actually a US warship named after Churchill(it is not a Ticonderoga, but the class right below it). There used to be a USS De Grasse as well, but it was a much smaller frigate… I do not know whether the Churchill has ever escorted the Charles de Gaulle!!!
I must add that, somehow, DC is striking in that its urbanism presents similarities with Versailles: a peripheral city devoted to political power and the control of the world of its times…
Hi Fazal! I do note that New York has Amsterdam Avenue, but Amsterdam does not reciprocate.
Heh. I would think the Dutch would have good reasons to be sore at how New Amsterdam turned into New York…