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With an aviation infrastructure, freedoms, and low cost that are unparalleled anywhere else on the planet, the United States is rightfully regarded as the foremost flying nation in the world.

But it hasn’t always been this way. A case can be made that, for the pioneering period of aviation history, the leading nation was France. There are clues in the language that pilots still use on a daily basis. Words such as aileron, fuselage, hangar, helicopter, canard, longeron, nacelle, empennage, cabane, and monocoque are all drawn from the French vernacular. Even the trusty pitot tube is named after a Frenchman, Henri Pitot.

If you still need convincing, take a trip to the French national aviation museum at Le Bourget near Paris. I went there on the first day of my honeymoon and it was the highlight of the whole vacation. Who needs the Eiffel Tower when there’s a chance to view the world’s finest collection of early airplanes? Seriously, it is hard to visit the Musée de l’Air and not come away deeply impressed by the passion, innovation, and influence the French people brought to the early years of flight. It’s as though a whole country fell in love with aviation.

The story began with the Montgolfier brothers’ hot air balloon of 1783. French people are still immensely proud of the fact that their nation was the first to fly. The story goes that King Louis XVI suggested a condemned criminal be carried on the first balloon flight, with the promise of a pardon if he survived. But two noblemen objected, saying that the honor of being the first man to fly should not be given to a criminal. And so it was that Pilatre de Rozier and the Marquis d’Arlandes talked their way into the first flying gig in history.

The French have some interesting claims relative to heavier-than-air aircraft, too, including the first glider flight that gained altitude (Jean-Marie Le Bris, 1856); first downhill hop in a powered aircraft (Felix du Temple, 1874); first uncontrolled hop of a powered aircraft (Clement Ader, 1890); and first helicopter flight (either the Breguet brothers or Paul Cornu, 1907).

But the country’s most powerful influence on aviation history came in the decade prior to World War I when the “French school” was the dominant force in aviation development. Names such as Levasseur, Farman, Hanriot, Nieuport, Deperdussin, Voisin, Morane-Saulnier, Caudron, Antoinette—and, chief of them all, Blériot—shine from the early history books. Especially after Wilbur Wright flew at Reims in 1908 and revealed the great secret of how to properly control an aircraft, the so-called “French school” drove airplane and engine development for a generation. They also led the world in pilot training and even built the first flight simulator.

I recently had the chance to learn about the current state of aviation in France during a fascinating meeting at AOPA headquarters with representatives from the Fédération Française Aéronautique (FFA). The FFA represents 41,000 of 45,000 private pilots in France, which they believe is the second-largest private pilot population in the world after the United States.

The main work of the FFA involves overseeing a national network of 600 flying clubs, which is why it was such a great meeting for the AOPA staff. Since last fall, we have been promoting the idea that clubs are one of the more useful ways to help grow aviation in the United States, by making flying more accessible, affordable, and social. We’re just getting started, but the FFA has been doing this since the mid-1930s, which represents a huge amount of knowledge that AOPA can learn from.

Today, nobody in France lives more than 40 miles from the nearest flying club and the FFA network contains 2,416 airplanes flying just more than 600,000 flight hours per year. The most common aircraft is the cranked-wing, four-seat Robin DR400, of which there are 721. It is all very impressive and we learned a great deal about how to approach the opportunities and challenges of the future. Some of the most interesting information was about how the FFA is working with the flying clubs to bring a continuous stream of young people into aviation.

There’s a plaque outside the Musée de l’Air at Le Bourget marking the spot where Charles Lindbergh touched down after his solo crossing of the Atlantic in 1927. Historians sometimes see this as the point in time when France passed the baton of world aviation leadership to the United States. But it was clear from our meeting here that there’s still a lot to be learned from our fellow aviators across the pond.