Answer: what links these two peoples together is Enlightenment and all values associated with it. It has its significant role today as well.
Explanation: For French Englightenment and resulting French revolution is really a turning point of their history (storming of the Bastille, July 14, is national feast in France). For Americans it is the same because American revolution, Proclamation of Independence and American constitutionalism were in fact a product of Enlightenment and especially French Enlightenment. Moreover, it was Enlightenment culture in France that produced something called "engaged intellectual", i.e. politically and socially active intellectual which plays a crucial role in French civilization. The same can be said about American Founding father who can be considered "engaged intellectuals". Of course there are many differences, for ex. French traditional Catholicism.
Pyroclastic textures occur when explosive eruptions blast the lava into the air resulting in fragmental, typically glassy material which fall as volcanic ash, lapilli and volcanic bombs.