Joie de Vivre: Secrets of Wining, Dining, and Romancing Like the French by Harriet Welty Rochefort

Author:Harriet Welty Rochefort [Rochefort, Harriet Welty]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2012-10-01T16:00:00+00:00

A French Paradox

As we near the end of these remarks on the unique world of work and play in France, I’ll leave you with a mystery, a French paradox. Wouldn’t you think that the French would be the happiest people in the world? All those paid vacations, in a country where the wining and dining and the scenery are superb, where “quality of life” comes first?

According to the annual BVA-Gallup poll, in 2010 France was the most pessimistic country in the world, or as Bruce Crumley wrote in Time, the French were “the sourpusses of the planet,” with extremely low expectations of the economic year ahead.

Here’s my entirely nonacademic theory on that. Anyone listening to the French news with its continual misérabilisme and doomsday reports would be depressed as well. I’ve often wondered how the editors and journalists who crank out the news, and who most undoubtedly lead good and satisfying lives, manage to focus on absolutely everything that is wretched and depressing. I tell you, after watching the nightly eight o’clock news on France’s Channel 2, I want to immerse my head in a bucket of Bordeaux.

But on second thought, I think all that pessimism is a good sign. It’s very Cartesian, in fact. The French know they’ve got it good—good roads, good schools, good health care. And so, logically, as they look around at the rest of the world, they begin to have doubts as to how long it can last.

They know that their Gallic fortress is besieged by the outside world, that what makes them French is threatened, that to join the world they’ll have to give up a little, or a lot, of what makes them unique. Maybe, they think, they’ll have to forgo those long vacations, those long meals, maybe they’ll no longer be able to live in a society where the words of philosophers are listened to and respected, where attention to food and drink is of the utmost importance, where hanging out is an art form. No wonder they’re popping pills. It’s all too horrible to contemplate.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.