At a ritzy White House dinner for Nicolas Sarkozy, France’s president, this week, symbolism was everything. Guests were spared French fries. But the lobster bisque starter and “Lafayette’s Legacy” for dessert, an unsubtle nod to the French noble who became George Washington’s aide-de-camp, spoke volumes.

Five months after Tony Blair quit as UK prime minister, depriving George W. Bush of a close European ally, the US president has found a new soulmate. Mr Sarkozy, with his disdain for high culture and free from froideur over Iraq, is a man with whom Mr Bush feels he can do business. His warmth for the US in a speech to Congress, balanced with criticism of Wall Street “excesses”, won him praise across Capitol Hill.