[PoignardAzur]

> I have less first hand experience, but I also think the level of distrust in the government (esp. central / federal) among rural populations is particularly high in both countries by developed nation standards.

I don't think they're really comparable.

The most obvious example is policing. In the US, local law enforcement has a lot of independence and discretion, to the point "sheriff has to grudgingly cooperate with out-of-touch FBI guy" is a literary cliché. In France, in rural areas the default expectation is that gendarmerie (basically centralized military police) will handle most serious problems.

In France the central state is pervasive in a lot of areas that are either local or privatized in the US.