Every day a small miracle occurs without anyone paying the slightest
attention. At breakfast, lunch and supper tens of millions of French
people decide to gather round a table at the same time in order to share
a meal, as if some invisible conductor raised his baton to mark the
start of festivities. This ritual is so deep-rooted that the French find
it quite usual. For foreigners, on the other hand, it is like something
from outer space.
"When the American sociologist David Lerner visited France in 1956 he was stunned by the inflexibility of the French regarding food," says fellow sociologist Claude Fischler, head of research at the French National Centre for Scientific Research ). "He couldn't understand why they all ate at a fixed time, like at the zoo."
French eating habits are indeed very singular. "Everyday life in France is marked by three traditional meals," says Thibaut de Saint Pol, a sociologist at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Cachan. "At 1pm half the population are at table and at 8.15pm this activity concerns more than a third of the population. Meals play a large part in organising social life." This major collective ritual is specific to France. A graph plotting meal times produced by Eurostat [the statistical office of the European Union] is almost flat for Sweden, Finland, Slovenia and Britain; all the way through the day people feed on various snacks, at no particular time. The same graph for France rises to three spectacular spikes, morning, noon and night.
But this is not the only unusual feature of meals in France. People here also spend more time eating than their fellow Europeans: two hours, 22 minutes a day in 2010, 13 minutes longer than in 1986! "If you add the hours of domestic labour directly related to eating – cooking, washing up and so on – this is one of the day's main activities," Saint Pol wrote in the journal Economie et Statistique in 2006. The French are also very keen on commensality [eating together]. According the Crédoc consumer studies and research institute, 80% of meals are taken with other people. "In France meals are strongly associated with good company and sharing, which is undoubtedly less so in other countries," says Loïc Bienassis, a researcher at the European Institute of Food History and Culture .
Americans take a radically different approach. There is nothing sacred about meals: everyone eats at their own speed, depending on their appetite, outside constraints and timetable. As long ago as 1937 French writer Paul Morand was surprised to see New Yorkers lunching alone, in the street, "like in a stable". US practice is so different from French ritual that it sometimes requires explanation.
"There's a secondary school in Toulouse which organizes exchanges with young Americans," says social anthropologist Jean-Pierre Poulain. "To avoid any misunderstandings teachers warn families before their children leave that the start of their stay will not be marked by an evening meal, as in France. When the young visitors arrive they are shown the fridge and told they can help themselves whenever they like."
Read more: France remains faithful to food as meals continue to be a collective affair | Life and style | Guardian Weekly
"When the American sociologist David Lerner visited France in 1956 he was stunned by the inflexibility of the French regarding food," says fellow sociologist Claude Fischler, head of research at the French National Centre for Scientific Research ). "He couldn't understand why they all ate at a fixed time, like at the zoo."
French eating habits are indeed very singular. "Everyday life in France is marked by three traditional meals," says Thibaut de Saint Pol, a sociologist at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Cachan. "At 1pm half the population are at table and at 8.15pm this activity concerns more than a third of the population. Meals play a large part in organising social life." This major collective ritual is specific to France. A graph plotting meal times produced by Eurostat [the statistical office of the European Union] is almost flat for Sweden, Finland, Slovenia and Britain; all the way through the day people feed on various snacks, at no particular time. The same graph for France rises to three spectacular spikes, morning, noon and night.
But this is not the only unusual feature of meals in France. People here also spend more time eating than their fellow Europeans: two hours, 22 minutes a day in 2010, 13 minutes longer than in 1986! "If you add the hours of domestic labour directly related to eating – cooking, washing up and so on – this is one of the day's main activities," Saint Pol wrote in the journal Economie et Statistique in 2006. The French are also very keen on commensality [eating together]. According the Crédoc consumer studies and research institute, 80% of meals are taken with other people. "In France meals are strongly associated with good company and sharing, which is undoubtedly less so in other countries," says Loïc Bienassis, a researcher at the European Institute of Food History and Culture .
Americans take a radically different approach. There is nothing sacred about meals: everyone eats at their own speed, depending on their appetite, outside constraints and timetable. As long ago as 1937 French writer Paul Morand was surprised to see New Yorkers lunching alone, in the street, "like in a stable". US practice is so different from French ritual that it sometimes requires explanation.
"There's a secondary school in Toulouse which organizes exchanges with young Americans," says social anthropologist Jean-Pierre Poulain. "To avoid any misunderstandings teachers warn families before their children leave that the start of their stay will not be marked by an evening meal, as in France. When the young visitors arrive they are shown the fridge and told they can help themselves whenever they like."
Read more: France remains faithful to food as meals continue to be a collective affair | Life and style | Guardian Weekly
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