Understand that my impressions of France and it’s people were first formed 40 years ago. I’m sure there’s been quite a bit of evolution.
That said, of all my professors, my favorite had served in the Resistance during WW2. She cooked for us often. It was my first experience with food that wasn’t American mid century quick and easy cookery.
My impressions of France lie in it's bones. Those who have defended her, those who have died for her and those, who today, support her freedoms. For me it's not really about the food shared, nor the wine poured. It's the deep and abiding history of those people who, in their daily lives, were caught up in history not of their own making, but who became that history themselves.
From the Galli wars of 58 to 50 BCE and the conquest by Rome under Caesar, to Clovis 1 and the wars against the Visigoths, the Viking seige of Paris in 845 CE, the Norman's under Rollo, Capetians, Valois, the Bourbons and Plantagenets, and on through the centuries it goes to the remnants of the Great War. And what I especially love about it all, is that in every town and village and around every corner I can see and touch the fragments of all those lives lived. A Neolithic cave with its magnificent art, a Roman bridge, an 11th century castle, a 13th century church, perhaps a Vauban fortification, a monument, a battlefield, a grave. Always the graves. I can become immersed in the centuries long development of art, literature, science and philosophy; grasp elements of the Ancien Régime, the First Empire, and appreciate the economic development, cultural flourishing and prosperity of the Belle Époque. Then the chord that strikes me the most, the passion and bravery of those defending it all when the Axis powers sought to destroy it. My France is the fervor of those French and their allies who after years of struggle in the trenches were finally able to, once again, placid and temperate, and with a strength born of hardship, return to their homes and enjoy in that liberty they thought lost... and then yes, perhaps find enjoyment in that food and wine France is so famous for.