I was one of the lucky ones who got a four-day weekend, but I had to share this belatedly patriotic quote. I felt the same way coming back from Paris–even though I loved it. Jefferson liked France, too.
[A trip to France] will make you adore your own country, its soil, its climate, its equality, liberty, laws, people and manners. My God! How little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are in possession of, and which no other people on earth enjoy.
Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826), U.S. president. Letter, June 17, 1785, to James Monroe.