French Leader's Visit With Bush Signals Warming

KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine, Aug. 11 -- During Nicolas Sarkozy's visit Saturday, there was no fishing trip like the one Russian President Vladimir Putin enjoyed last month. Not even a game of horseshoes, a Bush family tradition on Walker's Point.

But for the newly inaugurated French president, being welcomed at the Bush compound for a private lunch -- a rare off-the-cuff encounter involving none of the usual diplomatic formalities -- marked a new era in U.S.-French relations. Far from being served "freedom fries," Sarkozy, a conservative who made the startling decision to take his August holiday in the United States, was greeted with a warmth usually reserved for the British, whose "special relationship" with the United States once set it apart from other European countries.

President Bush, famously chilly toward the French in the past, practically beamed as he ushered Sarkozy into his parents' home. This, it seemed, was his kind of Frenchman: a vibrant, confident fellow unafraid enough of French public opinion to vacation in America (he has been staying in New Hampshire, about 50 miles from the Bush compound).

"We're going to give him a hamburger or a hot dog, his choice," Bush said during a brief round of questions with reporters before the lunch began.

Sarkozy preemptively defended his choice of vacation spot -- something Bush, who spends most of his summer break in the sweltering brush of central Texas, has been known to do. "I came to visit the United States on holiday, on vacation, like 900,000 French do every year. It's a great country," Sarkozy said. "I'm very happy to be here. The United States is a close friend of France, and I'm very glad to be able to meet with the president of the United States here today."

He had flown to France for a funeral the day before, and his wife, Cecilia, and children, not feeling well, stayed behind unexpectedly on Saturday. Still, Sarkozy got the full Bush experience.

He and the current president joined former president George H.W. Bush on a boat trip out into the Atlantic. The threesome also sat for a few minutes of diplomatic talk before lunch, White House officials said. Although officials from both countries had been adamant that the two leaders would be unavailable to the media, they suddenly welcomed in a group of reporters before sitting down to lunch.

The Bush grandchildren -- it was not clear exactly which ones -- had made banners welcoming Sarkozy, and a proud grandmother showed them off.

"Did you see the signs the grandchildren made?" former first lady Barbara Bush asked reporters.

"Le signe," her husband said playfully in something approaching French.

That caught the current president's attention. "What language are you speaking?" asked Bush, who has been known to mock people for speaking in foreign tongues.

A reporter tried to ask the jocular president a question.