Name: French Sunday.
Age: As a viral happiness trend, quite new. As an idea, quite old. Old Testament, even …
I’m thinking there’s a Bible quote coming. “Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.”
Why French Sunday, though? And anyway, wouldn’t that be Dimanche? First, well remembered. Second, no – in the same way as le pain grillé isn’t french toast but French for toast, got it?
Not really. So what’s French about French Sunday? It’s inspired by the country and its people.
I thought France was a staunchly secular nation? True, though heavily influenced by Catholicism. But – though they come into it – French Sundays aren’t just days of rest.
Still confused. It’s more a state of mind.
A French state of mind? Exactly that: it’s about finding your inner Frenchness, on a Sunday.
So maybe I’ll get up late, have a coffee and a pastry, read a little Proust, then spend the afternoon listening to jazz and making love … Perfect! In fact, all of the above are on the list.
List? Vogue has compiled a helpful one on how to adopt the French Sunday.
What else is on it? “Find a pretty view, sit down, and let your thoughts flow.”
What if my thoughts turn to the presentation I’ve got to make on Tuesday? That’s what you need to avoid – work, planning, productivity.
Go on, what else? “Cook something that takes for ever, like a whole roasted chicken with lemon …”
Is the lemon important? Essential. Also flâner …
Excuse me? Is that how to cook the chicken? No, it means to stroll aimlessly; you can do that while the chicken cooks. Alternatively: “Visit a museum. Study each painting, sculpture or exhibit without the need to figure anything out.”
And is this really what the French do? So, traditionally shops are closed, even if this is changing. And they do take their Sundays seriously. “There was a heist at the Louvre – on a Sunday morning, while the country was still asleep,” Céline Kaplan, a PR for French clients in New York, told the Zoe Report. “That’s how sacred Sundays are.”
Except for art thieves then, who don’t do French Sundays. Or they have just adapted it: visit a museum, study each painting, sculpture … and nick it. Kaplan also pointed out that: “Even protests in France happen every day except Sunday.”
And the rest of it, the strolling and sex? Possibly inspired as much by Emily in Paris as actual Paris, but it doesn’t matter: as previously mentioned, it’s a state of mind.
Do say: “Voulez-vous flâner avec moi, ce soir”
Don’t say: “Maybe I’ll take a French Monday’n’all.”
