Two Centuries of Friendship

America’s contribution to the liberation of France was the most recent chapter in a friendship that has spanned two centuries. From La Fayette to D-Day traces that alliance from General Lafayette’s decisive aid to the American colonies in 1781, to that early June morning of 1944 on the beaches of Normandy. The Franco-American friendship has produced a cultural richness evident in figures like Alexis de Toqueville, Benjamin Franklin, Jean-Jacques Audubon, the Statue of Liberty, Gertrude Stein and Sidney Bechet.