To find people watching in Paris fascinating?

[delighteddreams]

It's my first time visiting France, and I found people watching completely fascinating in and around Paris. Everyone seemed to live life at a much slower pace, sitting at cafes with an espresso for ages either with friends or alone, just people watching. No rushed Starbucks coffee drunk on the go, or sitting at a cafe on their phones absent mindedly.

At my hotel there was a breakfast buffet and there were marked differences between the French families and the British families (including me/my family). The British ate pretty quickly, with an impatience and excitement to get on with their day of tourist activities, the French families were much slower. They got several plates of different foods and presented it all on the table, and would eat so slowly and methodically.

I spent a day at Disneyland, and again for me meals were a quick ends to a means, quickly fill up on something so we can get back to the rides, parades, etc. I watched a couple of young women in their 20s sitting at a table, in a busy restaurant among the frantic hustle and bustle of a restaurant, they were just sitting quietly, drinking their coffee and chatting. It was like time had paused for them.

Obviously this is a huge generalisation, but I came away feeling inspired and like it was something I wanted to adopt. It feels like I'm always rushing to the next thing, never just sitting and being.

Has anyone had any interesting observations of France and French culture?

Yes I've noticed this when abroad. Meal times in France are seen as an event rather than a necessity.
It is a family time for all generations to collect and converse whilst enjoying a meal together.

If you think that's impressive you should go to a motorway rest stop and watch them own a picnic table with a full hamper, cutlery and a mother fucking table cloth while you hang out of the car with a limp ham sandwich and a packet of crisps.

Yes. Life in Europe is so much better. I live here.

Sad that Brexshit "won".

I mean, you can keep your £6 punnet of strawberries. I'd put a table cloth down for that.

@Iflyaway We are still in Europe! I live here too, in England.

You mean we didn't vote to chisel ourselves from the continent and set sail?

I'm really keen to go to Paris again now :-)

I'm Spanish and have also lived in various countries on the continent. Yes, meals are an 'event' and enjoyed at leisure, even during a busy day. At school, lunch is a two-course meal. Lunch break at my secondary school was almost 2 hours because it took you 1h to eat, and a little more to finish conversations / rest / go back to lessons.

At the weekends meals are even longer. Sunday breakfast is a family event. Saturday and Sunday lunch are community events if you're in smaller towns. There is no rush around cooking or eating. It's one of the reasons dinner is so late and lasts so long I think - nobody is rushing in from work and going straight to the kitchen to make dinner in a stressed and hurried state.

I was shocked when I moved to England and discovered that the lunch of choice seems to be a sandwich, eaten hastily at your desk / on the bus / at the kitchen table whilst also doing a load of laundry or sending some emails.

Whenever you go out for food or a coffee with friends, you book yourself 2-3 hours because even eating a piece of cake whilst having a cappuccino won't be any shorter than that. Meals are occasions for people to gather round a table and have a meaningful time together.

This is extremely accurate too. My mother always made sure the car was fully equipped with spare wheel, emergency kit, extra water bottle, and 'the picnic bag'. Freshly ironed tablecloth and full set of cutlery, plates, and plastic cups. It was rare that we'd eat in the car during a road trip. Most motorway rest areas have picnic tables, washing up spaces, and parks. For people to have a proper sit down meal there

Brexit has fuck all to do with it.

But I agree. Sat next to a suited and booted chap outside a cafe near the Orsay in September. He had a proper plate of food, a glass of red then a coffee and cigarette before going back to work.

I work with a lot of French people, in an office. At 1pm everyone downs tools and goes and takes a proper lunch break. None of this eating at your desk or inhaling a supermarket sandwich while rushing to the next meeting. I like it!

The Swiss eat at 12 noon.

I agree.

I was in awe at how elegant and chic the women looked in Paris. To be honest, I thought it was a lazy stereotype, but I was blown away at how classy and well groomed the majority looked.

@FourTeaFallOut laughing out loud at that image 🤣

French meal times are to be savoured, not rushed.

Jesus, nothing to do with Brexit! Let it go for god's sake.
I lived in France for a few years in the 90s. I absolutely love the culture and way of life. Like previous pp says, the motorway services picnics are something else!
Table cloth laid out, fresh baguette and cheese, always wine too.
It also amazes me that the French (generally) still love to smoke outside of cafes, and look so chic in doing so.
I spent a lot of time in the south and noticed that ladies of a certain age always look glamorous, always smoke and have a small handbag size dog too!
This is my plan for when I retire!

If you think that's impressive you should go to a motorway rest stop and watch them own a picnic table with a full hamper, cutlery and a mother fucking table cloth while you hang out of the car with a limp ham sandwich and a packet of crisps.

😆

@FourTeaFallOut so accurate, I remember going to a theme park with my family, we had a bottle of water each, ham butties wrapped in foil and a packet of crisps, this family next to us had a full blown table, chairs, table cloth, cutlery, serviettes, salad bowl, bottle of wine and proper glasses! We looked like the bloody clampets! I was completely in awe of them

Yes I don't know how they make smoking look cool, but they do!

I spent a lot of time in the south and noticed that ladies of a certain age always look glamorous, always smoke and have a small handbag size dog too!

yes they are very chic! I have French family & my parents have a holiday home in the south. I love it!

People sit down and eat meals, but don't mistake people holidaying in Paris for people living in France - especially Paris!

Parisians live in tiny spaces, pay over the odds for their food and because they actually can't often afford to live in Paris on the salaries paid there, they have long commutes. So the people you are watching are not the ones who are actually working and on the metro then RER. You're doing the equivalent of watching tourists in London and more than likely the Parisians you see would be living in Kensington or similar were they Londoners.

I have lived there and have French family. They do eat meals properly (taught it at primary school too), but the idea that they take things slowly isn't reflective of what life is like. Does fit a stereotype though..similar to the idea that all Englishmen are like Hugh Grant.

Oh god, yes! Totally know what people on this thread mean about Parisian chic. I'm a Francophile and always have been. No one does classy and cool like the French. Even their goddam book covers are elegant and classy!

I remember being in Paris once and this young French guy asked us if we knew where X was. (Obviously we didn't.) We then had a brief conversation with him, and he explained that he'd come to meet a friend and was lost. He then made this gesture to the heavens and said "et maintenant il pleut" (and now it's raining). The way he said it, and the way he pointed upwards, was just so **ing graceful and cool. I know it sounds odd. And it's weird that such a trivial incident should stick in my mind. But I never forgot him. Only a Frenchman could tell you he was lost, roll his eyes, complain about the rain, and yet make it look like a scene in an art house film!

I have nothing against Americans, but it always depresses me the way we gorge on their culture. Some of it is great of course (Breaking Bad, The Simpsons, Kurt Vonnegut, etc), but so much of it is vulgar and ugly. We've got France right on our doorstep, not to mention Germany, Spain, Italy, all with amazing literatures, gorgeous architecture, wonderful art galleries, etc, and we don't appreciate it.

Brexit or no Brexit I'm a European.

When I was younger, more than once I saw all that in the UK. The only difference was they had set up their picnic, table and chairs on the grass central reservation of a dual carriageway!.

@FixitJesus

I agree completely. Effortless elegance.