The French Project

The title of my blog, “A little more than 140 characters” is a bit of a nod to Twitter, text messages, and our culture in general. A culture that I, for the most part, support by taking part in – I have a Twitter account I sometimes use, I get a lot of social information from Facebook rather than actually talking to someone, I read headlines and pretend to know what’s going on in the world.

My recent trip to France was as revitalizing as the last. I came home feeling like I was glowing and someone even said, “You have that French glow!” It got me thinking about what is it about lazing about Cahors for two weeks that is so superior to lazing about Minnesota for two weeks. First of all, the obvious answer, is that you’re allowed to be lazy on vacation, I could have gone anywhere in the world and allowed myself the privilege of rest. But there’s something else, the French culture: taking hours to enjoy an outside barbeque dinner with friends and strangers and sheep on the French countryside; taking a real lunch break to meet up at a restaurant in the middle of the day; finishing work with a 15 minute café break with coworkers.


The French I met, this time around, all had good jobs, they were mainly nurses and gynecologists, there was an “Urbanist” thrown in, they worked 9-5 most days of the week, but unlike us Americans, they didn’t define their identities by their work. Upon being introduced to the friends’ of my friends, job titles were not the first evidence of identity. In fact, it was a week and a half into the trip before I learned that Nicolas, my friend’s boyfriend and therefore the excellent cultural guide for my stay, is in the medical field.

Par contre, my introduction was more like this: “Nice to meet you, my name is Abbie, I just finished a year of working with special education kindergarteners and I’m a ballet teacher.”

I’m trying to imagine how much easier it would be to find a job if I weren’t aiming for the top of Abraham Maslow’s pyramid of needs – do I really need to find self-actualization in my job? The idea now seems ridiculous to me. But this is our culture. A culture in which it's not good enough to make enough money to support a healthy lifestyle for yourself and your family, you also have to love your job and get recognition for it. (For example, I could make more money being a trucker or working in waste management than I could doing a variety of other socially acceptable jobs, i.e. wedding planning, but upon being introduced to new people would I rather be 'Abbie the wedding planner' or 'Abbie the garbage truck operator'?)

In this new season of my life, restarting the job search, I’m going to try to be a little more French in my lifestyle. So here it is: The French Project. Every Friday I will cook for anyone who wants to eat dinner together. The goal is to get people together to socialize and enjoy food with each other – real home cooked food that is not spoiled by waitresses waiting to change over your table. Let me know by Thursday of each week if you are coming so I can cook accordingly, and when you come (because, after all, I am unemployed) bring $5 or a bottle of wine.