This is no surprise. We have known about the French paradox for years. But this is a very good and informative short documentary on the pleasures of life in France and the health benefits from the French way of life and ways of eating and drinking. These are pleasures that we in the Anglosphere are increasingly denied; and when one defies the zeitgeist and indulges in such pleasures, there are plenty of boring and often ignorant people around, killjoys who think they know it all, who try and send one on a guilt trip for the indulgences. Fie on them all!
Little wonder that the vocabulary items and expressions used in English to describe these pleasures are borrowed from the French language. Expressions such as savoir vivre and joie de vivre come immediately to mind. Of course there are others.
These expressions can be translated into English; but when translated, they become rather meaningless.
France is a wonderful country and the French are a wonderful people; further, the French know how to live life to the fullest. They could teach us Brits, Americans and Australians a thing or two about how we should live. To use my own recent quote–Nowadays, people recognise the dangers in everything, but recognise the pleasures in nothing.–sums up attitudes to life in the Anglosphere. Now, in order to know how to live, we must look to France and the French.
Vive la belle France ! – © Mark Alexander
