A suggestion, if I may...
perhaps your letter would be more effective if one of our resident polyglots were to translate it into French? I suspect that a fuller and more forthcoming reply would be the result.
I'd do it myself, but the quality of the message would undoubtedly be undermined by my hackeneyed translation. I'm functional, but not fluent...
(Oh, and for those who suggest Babelfish, those translations are obviously identifiable and would likely be received as sycophantic pandering.)
The first couple of times are excusable; thereafter, it's pitiful...
