“She’s a caricature of a certain America that hasn’t parted with its boorish ‘Wild West’ side,” said the impish Mr. Rouvillois, who has also written a history of good manners. “For the French snob, the only admissible American is from the East Coast, knows Henry James, is comfortable in French, a sort of European on the other side of the Atlantic.”

A little, yes, like Senator John Kerry.

Le Canard Enchaîné, the country’s satirical, investigative weekly, did a take on Ms. Palin under the headline “Alaska, It’s Exquisite.” If Mr. McCain is a war hero, Ms. Palin “is the heroine of a trashy soap opera,” the paper said. The picture magazine Paris Match called her “La Pasionaria come in from the cold,” a reference to her fervent conservative and religious beliefs, as its reporters, too, trawled Wasilla, Alaska, for insights into this new American life form.