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Then there is SEXPOFF [Societe pour I'Exportation du Franc Franfais], a subversive movement to which all Amer icans in France automatically belong if they change francs into dollars, thereby reducing De Gaulle's ability to buy up Fort Knox. But sticklers over niceties now ponder whether those who reciprocate the nastiness of De Gaulle, whose character combines le Roi Soleil and De Lawd, are guilty of lese-majeste or sacrilege.
Signs of Tolerance. Since De Gaulle gives no sign of fading away like a good old soldier, U.S. State Department officials have adopted the policy of "a low silhouette," interpreted by irate congressional critics as "no guts." At that rate, diplomats are unlikely to pick up Columnist Art Buchwald's nomination for the next U.S. Ambassador to France: Bonnie and Clyde.
In Paris, Americans are not yet barred from Maxim's, the Lido or the Folies-Bergere, and 26,000 U.S. residents in France are still permitted to pay De Gaulle's taxes. One heartening note: a poll by the French Institute of Public Opinion reported that only 27% of the French think that the U.S. is a military threat to Europe. Some Frenchmen even profess to like Americans. Expatriates often hear such remarks as: "We think the general is being too tough on you, and we don't all share his feelings." Such remarks are usually passed late at night in back alleys, and it is difficult to tell whether or not the speaker is an Algerian.