Slow Time

The pace IS slower here in Europe.  There are 5 weeks (minimum!) of vacation time here in France.  35 hour work weeks.  Cell phones get switched off after work.  Stores and offices close for 2 hour lunches.  They teach it at school: there are 2 hour lunch breaks during which a five course meal is served to our children at school.   The young bank employee who signed us up for a bank account had 9 weeks off per year.  And the children get two weeks off from school every six weeks.

There isn’t a culture of guilt.  It’s not a crime to value your own time, to require switching off and having long holidays as a family.  It’s understood that you need to recharge.  It’s not like that everywhere for every job, and it’s changing, but it is part of the culture here in a way that it isn’t in North America: to enjoy quality time, to have slow meals, to not strive to acquire, to choose quality over quantity.  Working part time is not a crime.

In North America there is often a relentless drive, a pressure, and a sense of guilt if you step outside of that normal rush.  Two parents can work full time, bring work home, have 3 little kids, and hardly have time for each other, let alone themselves.  Eat something quick on the way to the next thing, always juggling.

It isn’t perfect here, and the people around us complain about the taxes and the red tape.  They even complain about the quality of the school lunches, which just to illustrate, was lamb and ‘petit pois au jus’ yesterday with several courses.

But try it.   If you have a portable salary, or can manage some flexibility for a year, or even half a year, make yourself a portable family too.  And then you can take back with you to North America a little less guilt, and a new way of seeing your time.

Time for a coffee break in Collioure.