I don’t buy for a minute the standard stereotype that all French despise or do not trust Americans.
I’ve known quite a bit of French folks over the years, and you are right, the older ones are very appreciative of the USA.
Countrymen and villagers in Southern France are a far cry from the arrogant Parisian.
I lived in southern France and the countryside villagers were the most generous people ever and as long as you liked their delicious food etc they were your best friends. They were often quite poorer than people I was used to in This country, but shared far more of what they had than I was used to seeing. Genuinely nice people.
In Paris my fellow student parisians, on the other hand, in the days before gps and cell phones, loved sending tourists awry with wrong directions. Not the same at all.