Joie de Vivre Lost?

Searching for some French joie de vivre? Apparently so are the French according to Claudia Senick, a professor at the Paris School of Economics and the University Paris-Sorbonne. In a land renowned for its rich culture, refinement, wine and food, that also manages to provide its citizens with free education and healthcare, a 35 hour work week and a retirement of 60, it appears that all is not well......

“It has now become common knowledge that the French are much less happy and optimistic than their standard of living would predict,” says Senik, "...there seems to be something about life in France that makes people more anxious and less cheery than those in other places". 

Foreigners who manage to turn their dream of pottering around in their own quintessential French maison or chateau into a reality, are not immune from this French malaise. The longer expats live in France, apparently the more miserable they become too. 

Predictably, Senick’s research findings have been  inflammatory, sparking much debate.  Despite the statistics, omnipresent gloom hasn’t been our experience in France. One of the  reasons we instantly fell in love with this country was because of the warmth, good humour and generosity of the French. 

On a perfect Provençal summer’s morning - the air thick with the drumming of cicadas, we chanced upon this group of antique dealers who were having a jolly time, oblivious to their national malaise. After agreeing to us taking their photograph, they beckoned us to join their train……. There was a lot of French joie de vivre to be had on this day………

Senik’s data has been interpreted differently by Orion Jones. Jones suggests "It may be the language of happiness that eludes the French rather than the underlying condition. Unhappiness, after all, often implies the desire for change—in circumstances, or even in oneself—and so dissatisfaction with life despite its material benefits suggests a kind of idealism—of intellectual vision of possibilities beyond the actual..."  

So have the French lost their joie de vivre?  I’ll let you be the judge...........