All President Bush wanted to do was have a quaint all-American lunch today with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, his wife Cecilia and their children as part of his summer vacation in Kennebunkport, Maine. He was planning to serve hot dogs and hamburgers, picnic-style and then maybe take a ride out on the family speedboat.

But, apparently, those plans didn’t stomach well with France’s first lady. She called Laura Bush early this morning and said she and her kids had sore throats and ”were too sick to have lunch with the President.”

Cough, cough. Maybe he should have told them he was serving French fries instead.