My Légion d’Honneur
On December 1, 2021, at the French Consulate General in New York, I was awarded the rank of chevalier (knight) of the Légion d’Honneur, France’s highest civilian decoration.
In presenting me with this honor, that was issued by French President Emmanuel Macron, the French Consul General Jéremie Robert said:
“Mr Andelman, you first studied diplomatic history at Harvard, and then you went on to obtain a degree in Journalism at the Columbia Graduate School. I am sure that this education helped you develop your talent for describing global issues in a way that the public can understand, relate to, and embrace.
This talent has served you well, as a foreign correspondent, a political author and a commentator. It has also been vital to your ability to explain French society, culture and politics to your countrymen and women here in the US, which is something you have done ceaselessly and with great finesse throughout your life, and career. France is deeply grateful to you for that.”
“Dear David, for your longstanding friendship with our country and your lifelong commitment to promoting better understanding between the people of France and the United States, it is an honor to bestow the title of Chevalier in the Legion of Honor upon you today.”
I followed with a brief acceptance speech:
It's difficult to express the depths of my feelings for France and the French people….but let me tell you one story that may help you understand….it was nearly 40 years ago. I was the CBS News correspondent in Paris and very close to President François Mitterrand. I was doing an interview with him in the gardens behind the Elysée Palace. At the end of the interview, I took the president aside and told him that our cameraman, Joe Masraff, born in Egypt but who had spent much of his adult life in Paris, had just the day before become a French citizen. Mitterrand did not miss a beat…he rushed immediately over to Joe, threw his arms around him, took Joe by the arm and showed him around the entire fringe of the Elysée gardens, pointing out every historical point, every statute. At the end, he grasps him again, kisses him on both cheeks, and says, "I welcome you as the newest citoyen de France." Joe, a somewhat unemotional fellow, was moved to tears. He and I never forgot that grand gesture. As I shall never forget this one, M. l'Ambassadeur, President Macron, a nod to Ambassador Anne-Claire Legendre who started the whole process, and all those who have made this possible!
Now a few words in French ….
En cette ère de divergence, probablement le titre de mon prochain livre... Je suis conscient de l'importance de cultiver une plus grande compréhension entre les peuples, sinon toujours les gouvernements des deux pays. C'est donc ma mission... de promouvoir une meilleure compréhension de la culture française, de la société et des fins communes que nos deux peuples ont eues dès l'époque où la France est venue au secours des révolutionnaires américains pour gagner notre liberté de Grande Bretagne.
Et maintenant j'ai ce symbole de ce que nous partageons en commun... vraiement un grand honneur en effet.
For those who'd like to know what I've said:
In this Age of Divergence, probably the title of my next book, I am aware of the importance of cultivating greater understanding between peoples, if not always the governments of both countries. It is therefore my mission to promote a better understanding of French culture, society and the common ends that our two peoples had from the time when France came to the aid of the American revolutionaries to gain our freedom. from Great Britain.
And now I have this symbol of what we share in common ... truly a great honor indeed.
My wife, Pamela Title, followed:
I guess there is no one who understands more than I, just how deeply David feels about France and its people. On our first date—one month shy of 22 years ago—as we began telling each other about ourselves, David described his time in France. To him, it was as important as anything he could say to let that blind date know who he was. Family, work, interests, for David, France is a part of it all.
Through the years, he has told me about his time spent in La Baule and the Côte d'Amour, in Vallauris in the hills above Cannes, in the wine country of Languedoc, the beaches of Normandy, each region beautiful and historic in its own way….each a story reflecting the pride that the people feel about their families and their lives, not to mention their wines, their cheese, their sausages, their country.
Most people love going to France for the culinary delights, romantic buildings, charming streets as well as the history, museums; for artists, it’s that special light, for writers, the romantic stories.
For David, it's especially enjoying the people--the fromagier, the pharmacist, the man who sautés the galettes at the Sunday market on the Boulevard Raspail, the local farmers who bring their produce with such great pride—all part of the character of the French people. Behind each it’s not hard to spot the philosophy of Descartes, the poetry of Verlaine or Baudelaire, the songs of Yves Montand who David followed for months, profiling him for Sunday Morning, and especially the writings of Proust whose works David has admired and collected for decades.
For an American, it sometimes can be a little challenging to accept the way some things are done. But perhaps there are lessons to be learned—that it’s just as important to drink the wine, enjoy the music and song, savor the poetry.
And now through our many trips, I have suggested traveling to the end of a Paris metro line, discovering gems each time from the Chateau of Vincennes to the Porte de Lilas, celebrated by Serge Gainsbourg.
And as life has its funny ways of bringing us down unexpected paths, his son Philip travelling the world, ends up marrying an extraordinary French lady, Sarah. Now, they have a wonderful nine year old nine-year-old Franco-American son, Woody. So, like any loving grandparent, France has become a place where David can see his grandson grow up.
Walking through Paris with David is a stroll through the history and culture of a magical land, with the best possible guide. Just the other day, he told me 40,000 books are published each year in France.
So, bravo to President Macron, salutations to our esteemed consul general, Jeremy Robert, and the French government for recognizing my darling husband and all that France means to him.
Then Laetitia Garriott de Cayeux concluded:
Dear David, Dear Mr. Consul, and all of you here with us this evening,
It’s an honor for me to share a few words on this day when a dear friend, David Andelman, is awarded the “Legion d’Honneur”. I will speak in English for all our American friends but conclude my remarks with a tribute in French from Patrice de Beer, former Washington and London correspondent for Le Monde, who sadly cannot be with us today but beautifully captured David’s decades of service, and friendship to France.
Though David grew up in the suburbs of Boston, his mother a substitute French teacher, he didn't visit France for the first time until he'd already joined The New York Times. But he made up for that very quickly.
By the time I first came to know David some twenty years ago, David was already among a very small group of widely recognized scholars on French-American relations. He had co-authored a book with a long-time head of French intelligence. One of his students briefly at Science Po, was even Francois Delattre, the youngest French ambassador appointed to the United States. As I got to know David more, it came as no surprise how David’s key role in furthering US-French relations came to be. In addition to speaking fluent French by the time he entered college, he had formed lifetime bonds with French correspondents such as Patrice de Beer, during his early career reporting around the world. So, when he finally arrived in Paris as CBS News correspondent just as François Mitterrand was arriving for his first term as president, he was amply prepared to translate French society into terms an American audience could embrace. These were complex times. Bombs were exploding across Paris, there were conflicts in the last parts of French-speaking Africa and the Middle East. And when Mitterrand named four French communist party members to his cabinet, panicking President Ronald Reagan who sent his vice president George H. W. Bush racing to Paris to make sure France wasn't shipping NATO secrets to Moscow, David was in the Elysée courtyard to report Mitterrand's assurances…hold your friends close and your enemies closer.
Some 15 years ago, when I was looking for someone able to join me on camera to translate the exquisite intricacy of US politics and policy in a way that would speak to a French audience, David was there.
And, David is still here today, more active than ever, at a time when we still have a lot of work to do to patch up ties between the U.S. and France.
So I was hardly surprised when France named David a chevalier of the Légion d'Honneur. All I can say is Bravo.
And now it’s my honor to read Patrice de Beer’s letter to David, in which he beautifully celebrates David’s deep knowledge of the history that binds our two countries and our two people, and David’s steady friendship for France and the French over the last five decades.
Cher David,
Tout d’abord je tiens à te féliciter, en tant qu’ami et ancien collègue journaliste, pour la Légion d’honneur qui t’est décernée aujourd’hui.
Elle ne pourrait être mieux méritée. Et là, ce n’est plus l’ami, mais le journaliste, qui le dit. Excellent connaisseur de la France, celle d’aujourd’hui comme celle à la longue histoire, celle que négligent trop souvent les «spécialistes» trop focalisés sur l’écume et les modes du jour sans en rechercher les grands courants qui ont traversé son histoire. Pour le meilleur et pour le pire.
De la France, tu es un excellent connaisseur. Un ami, mais pas un ami intéressé. Pas un « ami » superficiel, comme les modes qui nous ont fait passer outre-Atlantique, d’une année sur l’autre. Tu n’as rien de ce qu’on appelle en anglais un «fair weather friend». Un ami intéressé par une quelconque breloque ou des apparences médiatisées.
Ta connaissance de la diplomatie dans le temps long, tes recherches historiques sur les frontières, sur la Première guerre mondiale, montrent chez toi un intérêt en profondeur, doublé d’une amitié. Mais une amitié qui sait aussi être critique, qui peut aussi nous rappeler que la France n’est pas uniquement ce pays «que le monde entier nous envie» comme s’en rengorgent trop souvent nos grands esprits, mais un pays qui a aussi ses faiblesses, ses défauts, le principal d’entre eux n’étant guère la modestie...
Si je dis tout cela, c’est que nous nous connaissons depuis longtemps, plus de quarante ans, depuis que nous étions tous les deux à Bangkok, toi correspondant du «New York Times» et moi du «Monde», et que nous y sommes devenus plus que collègues mais amis, une amitié qui n’a jamais cessé depuis lors. Nous avons tous les deux bourlingué à travers le monde, vécu crises et guerres mais aussi ces périodes de paix, fragiles, qui nous laissent plus de temps pour acquérir une connaissance, une compréhension plus profondes, loin du bruit et de la fureur.
Cher David, tu connais bien la France, mais aussi les Français. A Paris, mais pas seulement, tu t’es fait beaucoup d’amis et de relations, officielles, officieuses et «normales». Tu y as un fils, une belle-fille et un petit-fils. Tu partages presque ta vie entre ton appartement de New York et ta sympathique soupente – style «la Bohème » - presque mitoyenne du Palais de la Légion d’honneur. Comme si tu avais, au fond de toi, subodoré, depuis des années, que tu pourrais y entrer un jour, non plus en tant que journaliste mais comme membre de plein droit.
Cher David, je lève mon verre, lointain, en ton honneur!
Patrice de Beer
Those of you who speak French will have understood that Patrice is raising his glass from afar, in celebration, and so do we David. Here is to you, and here is to US-France friendship!
Laetitia Garriott de Cailleux, born in Angers, France, is CEO of Global Space Ventures and co-chair of Women for Biden and Innovators for Biden.
Thanks ever so much, Greg … that means a lot (!) to me !!!
Thanks ever so much Armando !!