It took more than a decade, but American views of France have now fully rebounded to a very high 78 percent favorable. That’s more than double – much more than double – what it was at the bottom.

But have American views of France really substantially changed? I’m not sure.Jokes about the French – a form of ethnic humor that would be a fireable offense if it referenced any other ethnicity but is considered widely acceptable in the United States – long predated 2003 and the “Freedom fries” era.

Even in the 1990s, when Americans reported high favorability ratings for France, a form of Francophobia was still widespread. “The Simpsons” so perfectly captured American views of France with the 1995 coinage “cheese-eating surrender monkeys” that the phrase has stuck for almost 20 years and was included in the Oxford quotation dictionary twice. Even as far back as 1945, the U.S. Army distributed pamphlets to troops about to land in France called “112 Gripes About the French,” meant to curb what was assumed to be rife Francophobia.