Cest la Vie America vs. French Lifestyles Essay

Cest la Vie America vs. French Lifestyles - Essay Example As the paper stresses   Americans have called the French â€Å"cheese-eating surrender-monkeys,† have been derided as weak capitulators to terrorists with loose morals and an eye toward lechery, have had the† french† fry relabeled â€Å"freedom† fry. Certainly, anything French is not very popular in some circles in America today. Thus, it is only with conviction and certainty that one can assert that on the points of daily life, food and culture, the pace of life, and its great cities, one can only conclude that the French lifestyle is superior to the American lifestyle. Tres courageux! Thid paper outlines that in France, one’s daily life is taken at a much slower pace and has a greater focus on leisure time and enjoying what life has to offer. It is not uncommon for business people to eat three or four-hour lunches in France, enjoying conversation and a good bottle of wine along the way. Certain French workers are given subsidies for lunch expenses and bars/restaurants that honor those subsidies are ubiquitous. There is a focus on enjoying eating times, and although there are fast food restaurants in France, they are not iconic as in America and eating food on-the-go in France is still a cultural faux-pas, and will engender stares and snorts. There are less malls and more of a focus on local specialty shops, like grocers, meat markets, cheese stores, chocolatiers, butchers, cobblers, and similarly specialized shops. Indeed, the cafe life--sitting out at a cafe, sipping a coffee or a drink, looking at the world pass by, is one of life’s great pleasures . In America, the outside cafe is a rarity, and even if one finds one, usually one has one drink and must leave (turnover is king!).