Living: Thumbs Up for the U.S.A.

Some French tourists visit America and signal approval, mostly

Once upon a time, Americanus touristus roamed the world freely, leaving its green-paper tracks everywhere, while its own habitat remained a preserve too costly for the world's other species to visit. Today, with their currencies stronger in relationship to the dollar, more and more foreigners are taking the grand tour of the U.S. In 1960, only some 800,000 came to visit; in 1979, nearly 6.5 million visitors are expected. TIME Contributor Jane O'Reilly accompanied a group of French tourists and wrote this account of the...

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