Top GOP candidates have hidden French ties

WASHINGTON - Leading Republicans Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich share more than a burning desire to pocket the keys to the White House. They have both also spent time in France and speak the language.

But it is not an asset either man has openly trumpeted in a country where French fries were once officially renamed Freedom Fries, and where all things Gallic are viewed with a suspicion that at times spills over into open scorn.

Millionaire businessman Romney spent more than two years living in Paris and Bordeaux in the 1960s, working as a Mormon missionary.