The towns of Taylor and Snowflake were visited recently by a film crew from France, who had spent three weeks filming the region for the television program “L’Amerique Dans Tous Ses Etats.”

The film crew made up of host Gerard Klein, Director Laurent Le Gall and photographer Gregory Martoglio visited Salt Lake City and Park City with Robert Redford, then Bryce Canyon, Zion Park, Lake Powell, Ante-lope Canyon and Monument Valley with the Navajo Indians, and were on their way to their last stop, the Fort Apache Reservation.

The White Mountain Partnership, represented by Julia Patrick, escorted the film crew in the White Moun-tains for the last two days of their tour, April 20 and 21, giving them a taste of the pioneer history of Snowflake and Taylor.

They visited the Flake Home, where Snowflake-Taylor Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Greg Hudson talked to them about the culture of the Mormon pioneers, and their lives in the communities of Snow-flake and Taylor. “They were very interested in the Mormon background, and very impressed with the way people live their faith,” said Patrick. They said that it is very different than France.

They visited Heritage Antiques, where “they made the comment that you can really learn a lot about people by what their antiques are,” said Patrick.

That evening they ate at Trapper’s Cafe, where they met Taylor Mayor Debbie Tuckfield and Snowflake Mayor Kelly Willis. Taylor Town Manager Eric Duthie invited them to fire the anvil the following morning.

They spent the night at Heritage Inn Bed and Breakfast, where they were impressed with the unique antiques that decorated each room.

After breakfast they visited Freeman Park, where Klein experienced firing the anvil firsthand.

Duthie and Fire Chief Clint Burden welcomed them. Frank Frost, Clint and Kyle Peck, descendents of Monk Standifird, who in the 1950s started the tradition of firing the anvil once again, gave them the history of the firing of the anvil.

Then Klein was given the torch to blast the anvil, which excited him so much he spoke of his experience in French.

“I have never done anything like this,” said Klein. “It was quite an explosion and the power of the anvil lift-ing off the ground was magnificent. I can now say Taylor is noisy!”

“Everybody in town has been extremely gracious,” said Patrick. “We were very lucky to get them here.”

“France is one of the top five tourist groups here, so it’s very important to get the French media involved in the White Mountains,” Patrick explained.

The crew is traveling through America filming the second season of “Across America!,” a documentary series hosted by Klein and broadcast in France on the Voyage channel and France’s Channel 4 Fox Interna-tional, and in countries where French is the predominant language. The show will reach an estimated 215 mil-lion households worldwide.

The show, which is in its second season, is hosted by Klein, an award-winning actor, who noted, “Our no-tion of how Americans really live and what they think is based on what we see in the media.”

“The premise is that the French have a very one-sided view of America, so the goal is to talk to Americans of all different faiths and backgrounds, in all 50 states,” said Patrick, noting that Arizona is the 14th state the crew has visited.

“Through our travels we have come to know a different view of the American people. We have visited with many peaceful, family oriented and hard-working people,” said Klein.

“Through the series ‘Across America!’ we hope therefore to discover the ‘true America,’ behind its makeup, rid of its glittery rhinestones, of its stress, and lit by candles, not by neon. This will allow us to discover its authenticity, to speak without taboos, of little stories, of its history, of its extremes, and the challenges it faces to show this continent, at the crossroads of different cultures, these states, provinces where nature is gigantic and unusual, to meet all these people that we do not yet know and who have so much to tell us,” noted Le Gall.