US and French presidents held a summit at George Washington's historic estate this evening in another sign that once-chilly relations have advanced beyond the era of "freedom fries".
Underscoring how times have changed, French President Nicolas Sarkozy trumpeted strengthened ties with President George W. Bush in a speech earlier to a joint session of the US Congress that was filled with effusive praise for American values.
"America can count on France in its battle on terror," Mr Sarkozy said, pledging that his country would stand by the United States in the fight against nuclear proliferation in Iran and terrorism in Afghanistan.
French president Nicolas Sarkozy
Mr Bush, notably frosty toward Mr Sarkozy's predecessor, Jacques Chirac, has been just as eager for a fresh start in relations badly strained by the Iraq war.
Mr Sarkozy considered France's most pro-American president in decades, was welcomed on his first official visit to Washington with a warmth normally reserved for the British, whose "special relationship" has made them the closest US ally.
Mr Bush paid tribute to Mr Sarkozy with a guided tour of Mount Vernon, the plantation home of America's first president just south of Washington. They shook hands and smiled.
Mount Vernon was chosen as the venue to evoke the long alliance between the two countries stretching back more than 200 years to the American War of Independence.
Mr Sarkozy has made no secret of his affinity for American culture, and White House officials say he and Bush used earlier meetings, including an informal get-together at the Bush family compound in Maine in August, to forge close personal ties.
But mindful of Mr Bush's deep unpopularity in France, Mr Sarkozy, a fellow conservative, must also show he will not flinch at disagreeing with him. Mr Sarkozy was mocked as "Bush's poodle" by Socialists before coming into office in May.
Joking about his dilemma, Mr Sarkozy said at a black-tie White House dinner yesterday that he had come "to say that one can be a friend of America and yet win elections in France."
Signaling the countries still have their differences, Mr Sarkozy warned lawmakers that by standing by as the dollar falls the United States risks an "economic war" in trade.
Still, it was a far cry from Mr Bush's chilly relations with Chirac, who rankled the US administration with his outspoken opposition to the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.