“Joy became for me not only a natural need, but a moral obligation.” André Gide

The café culture of France is a frequent topic in my blogs and I have emphasized that it is more than just stopping for a coffee or glass of wine. Café culture describes much of what makes all of French culture so desirable, and different. At the heart of it all is the culture of joie de vivre.

Joie de vivre is literally translated “the joy of life.” In English it is used, according to Wikipedia, “to express a cheerful enjoyment of life, an exultation of spirit, and general happiness.” We tend to equate it with carpe diem, seize the day, live for the moment. All meritous concepts, yet they miss the depth of the French mindset and culture. They tend to equate joy with happiness, which is not essential to the French thinking.

Joie de vivre is the conviction that life is worth savoring, even in the midst of disappointments and challenges. The key concept is that of savoring. Savoring the small and important things produces joy.

Lunch is slow and often long because the people and the conversation is just as important as the food. Productivity is not worshipped as it is here in the USA – there will be time for the to-do list later. Gide would say the joy of savoring is a “natural need… and a moral obligation.” Eating is more than filling the stomach, but is a part of connecting with others.

This is so important to life in France that the French labor laws generally prohibit eating in a work area, and companies must provide a dedicated eating area, and in large companies a dining room. Safety and hygiene influenced the law, but the importance of taking a break required protection and emphasizes the place of savoring in the culture.

Coffee break. In my years of travel as a seminar speaker I discovered that drinking coffee in the US was something we did while doing something else, like walking or driving – drive-through windows are extremely rare in France. The rest-stops on the expressways all have espresso, but people stop, park the car, and sip at a table, finish, and then continue on down the road. A coffee break in most other countries is just that, a break. I rarely saw anyone bring a coffee into my seminars in any country except in the USA.

Travel. Savoring travel is not asking “What did you see?” But instead asking about how it felt being in a place, who did you talk to, what did you eat, what did you learn about the moment. I never really liked the phrase so common in travel, “We did…” I am not sure how you ‘do’ France – how many boxes must be checked?

So the cafe is a place where joy can grow, a place to slow down, and to savor friends, food, and time. It is a place to linger.

We want to schedule everything, even our time to relax, I remember time management books that said to schedule time to relax – yet the French make it a part of everything they do. The problem with “work-life balance” is that it compartmentalizes work and life, joie de vivre connects the two. It is the mindset of living in a way where joy can be present, not conditioned on pleasure or disappointment.

To really experience the cafe culture requires a change in how we think, not just un café et un croissant at a cute cafe. It requires a change in how we see life.

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” Marcel Proust