The French Art of Living Well

March 27, 2023
In this enjoyable travelogue, Yandell (Carpe Corpus), a French professor at Carleton College, reflects on finding la joie de vivre (the joy of living) in France. Recounting episodes from her time in the country, first as a college student studying abroad and later as the director of a study abroad program, she shares what she’s learned from French people about delighting in everyday life. “Celebrations and gastronomy are inseparable in France,” she posits, telling how she was surprised by the elaborate series of dinner courses at the first French wedding she attended, where she realized that the “real point is to spend hours” conversing with others. She surveys the French passion for soccer while recalling watching the 2018 World Cup championship game at a Paris bar and credits the country’s win with uniting people in celebration. Elsewhere, the author serves up broad overviews of French intellectualism via the country’s literary canon and of the linguistic differences between English and French, which she suggests betray the latter’s slower pace (“In English, we ‘spend’ and ‘invest’ time,” but “in French, one simply ‘passes,’ ‘devotes,’ or ‘consecrates’” it). Yandell’s personal accounts offer fun glimpses into French life, and her commentary on national character and culture is well observed. Francophiles, take note.