Joie De Vivre: Simple French Style for Everyday Living [Hardcover]

Whether or not the lifestyle described here is true or not, as pointed out by some of the other reviewers, matters not. M. Arbor obviously cherishes the existence he writes about so lovingly.
Arbor lingers over descriptions of what he terms a typical French day. The reader senses his exuberance shining through the pages as they read about his breakfast, his time at a friend's garden, his love of fresh vegetables newly picked, shopping in the tiny family run French specialty stores that provide only the best food--all preservative free. As he sings the praises of the perfect roast chicken--stuffed with a piece of simple French bread and crowned with Provence herbs and root vegetables--I have tried this recipe and it is very good, your mouth will literally water. He urges the reader to delight in the little moments of life as defined by family and friends, good food and great wine. His glee is as ambiant as the light filterng through his morning window and as palpable as savoring the home-made pain du Chocolat he describes for an extra special afternoon snack. What he describes is indeed idyllic--a veritable fairytale land where all the senses are sated. Real? Who cares? It sounds wonderful to me. I felt as if I had spent a week with Arbor in his tranquil French village.

In fact, just reading about it all allowed me to plunge back in time to when I myself was a little girl and my mother sent my brother and I to a garden of a neighbor to pick zucchini blossoms. My mother would fry this in a simple batter---oh what a marvelous treat. If not for Arbor's reminisciences, I would have never remembered how wonderful the whole experience was or how much I attribute such things to the real meaning of "home".

On a more realistic level, Arbor's lifestyle may be difficult to reproduce here in the United States where we rely more on cars and supermarkets to shop rather than applying the "faire les courses" mentality of the French way of marketing. Perhaps here in New Orleans, or in other large cities, this is easier to accomplish, but I would say those who live in a more suburban or rural existence where bakeries, patisseries, chacuteries, cremeries, etc. simply do not exist or have been replaced by large supermarket chains promoting convenience rather than quality, will have a more difficult time of advocating Arbor's lifestyle. Of course, anyone can find ways to shrug off the tension of American life at any given moment by simply stopping to smell the coffee and enjoying smaller pleasant moments of life instead of always expecting the biggest events that we are unrealistically conditioned to believe we deserve.

Arbor's message is simple and at the same time lovely to read about: Say "no" to stress--Simply smile and enjoy--eat well, drink well and cherish those that make up our individual worlds. A wonderful glimpse into what could be possible for those who crave a more European lifestyle. Also recommended are Will Clower's Fat Fallacy and Anne Barone's Chic and Slim Series--these books are recommended for those who are interested in how the French manage to stay so slim after indulging in all that greatly satisfying food.

I don't know whether everything in this book is true. I've never been to France. However, I know that I want it to be true, because what Mr. Arbor has written is so incredibly beautiful and inviting. When he describes how the French approach life with more deliberation and less haste, I sighed. I want that for myself. I want intimate dinners of well cooked food with well chosen friends. I want to cook a few things well, and be able to linger at the table, comfortable in the knowledge that, though the fare may be simple, it is pleasurable. Life in our country can be incredibly stressful. Borrowing a few pages from Joie de Vivre can only enhance my life, and it really is a lovely read. Sigh, I love beautiful books.

Arbor's book is an evocation of a way of life that only a few French people today achieve (especially in Paris, which is now about 65% wealthy executives and a lesser assortment of truly poor people). But social reality is not the point of the book. Arbor does really capture what many French people imagine their lives to be, despite the messy reality that includes: infuriating customer service and poor availability of products and services (even French people often get angry, when they are not stuffing it inside), open social conflicts and overt racism that many "apolitical" Americans would find exhausting or shocking, and extreme cultivation of privacy and disregard for others in public. Actual French people are as varied as we are--and the stories they tell to themselves (and Arbor translates one important one here for us) are interesting to hear and we can learn from them--both as a clue to French ideals of the pleasure-filled, simple life and as a restorative from our own excesses.

It is, I believe, true that many French executives have a much more relaxed life than the American bourgeoisie, although many are also nervous, stressed and unpleasant. There are wonderful food choices (if you can afford them, something increasingly difficult for working French people). "Low-fat" IS under 20% for many foods. I actually found many French people to be too skinny and to look unhealthy and washed out--and of course some are fat but not normally as obese as we are used to seeing here. More importantly, the ideal that Arbor describes circulates widely in France and accounts for some of the different choices in life that the French make and the different emphasis that many place on their experiences.

I read Arbor's book before living in Paris for six months and, indeed, my consumption of his evocations and internalization of his values caused a few French people to remark on how well socialized I was (until they knew me and my heathen ways, of course). I realized that France is as far from Paradise as here, but in a slightly different direction. The ideals that Arbor sets out here in a lovely, idealized style have something to do with this: Arbor's "France" and his suggestions are healthy and even wholesome--why shouldn't we all live a 'beautiful' and slower-paced life? Why not incorporate a sense of beauty and the love of pleasure as a fundamental? And, as Arbor suggests, this has more to do with emphasis and choices already available than with running to France to smell the lavender (although that would be nice!). A "really good fried egg" tastes as good in Kentucky as it does in Paris. One should also remember that not all aspects of American life are worthless--our cultural struggles for convenience and accessibility has led to much better services and access for handicapped people than will ever be possible in Paris. If you are wheel-chair bound, or have a hard-time walking (or anything), you can pretty much write France off the map; French handicapped people look to the US as a Mecca for such services as we make available here.

While "plaisir" is overused in France as a marketing theme for everything from cheap sandwiches to toilet tissue in the same way that images of home and reconstructed families are overused in the US, "plaisir" and "joie de vivre" points to something that many Americans could really learn from--the cultivation of pleasure, individual and shared, as an everyday ethic, if not always an easy reality. One could go further as an American and notice the areas of our lives that ARE similar and full of pleasure--such as the Thanksgiving meal, which is an important ritual of pleasure, togetherness, sharing and abundance, and extend those values into everyday life. In Joie de Vivre, Arbor highlights the contrasts between a life focused on pleasure (not indulgence) and the sour Puritan, production and "necessity"-driven life we overvalue here. As Voltaire suggested, "let us cultivate our garden," a garden that is always in front of us. In "Joie de Vivre," Arbor translates that ethic for his American readers, who are so obviously looking for a moment of respite. If you are looking for a reminder to cultivate the good things in life, this book is a charming choice for a relaxing read.

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