^ Well, I won't even try to comfort you, I'll just easily admit there's quite a bunch of things, like tons of high-rise landmarks, mansions and stuff from the US that we French would be quite very pleased to steal.
Seriously, the US is
far from being ugly. It's plainly obvious. You know, sometimes, grass seems greener on the other side as they say, but in fact to each their own problems. There are some both in France and in the US, it's just not necessarily the same.
The great point about Europe is very well known by forumers here. It's that most people over here don't mind putting their cars aside and relying on mass transit, which of course allows a better use of space for dense urban developments. It seems that more and more in the US are converging to that point, though, maybe from observing European cities whose many are spectacular simply by their densities.
Right now in France, we're facing some bad budget issues, that is delaying our most important public projects. The HSR line linking Bordeaux to Toulouse is estimated at €5.9 bi, won't be operational before
at least 2024. The section to Dax would cost €3.9 bi, not before (still at least) 2027. Further to Hendaye is not even mentioned. In other words, don't think about it before the 2030s. My hope is if the national economy finally gets better within the few coming years, better efforts may eventually be consented.
BTW, trains obviously don't mean giving up on cars or on airplanes (Toulouse will remain the center of aeronautics in the country, don't worry about that). It's just better to have
everything!
That's helpful greediness.