[.ca] Joie de Vivre: Simple French Style for Everyday Living (ISBN 0743223535)

From Amazon.com:
In Joie de Vivre, Robert Arbor, a Frenchman transplanted to New York City, explains the French philosophy on life and argues for its adoption by stressed Americans. In a funny way, this is sort of a self-help book for people who admire the French lifestyle, and for those who believe that good food is the secret to a happy life. The premise of the book is that you will find "domestic happiness" when you learn to enjoy the most mundane details of your everyday life: "It's about making time for family, growing some vegetables in your garden, chatting with the butcher, and cooking for your family and friends." Quality of life, explains Arbor, is only improved when your pillowcases smell like lavender, and you make your own hot chocolate. Although there are 50 recipes dispersed throughout the book, Joie de Vivre is not a cookbook. Most of the recipes are for dishes like A Really Good Fried Egg, mayonnaise, and café au lait, but there are interesting as well, such as Carrot Râpée, Beet Vinaigrette, and Fish in Papillotte. The recipes are included more as a way to better describe the French experience and to show how easy it is to adopt as a way of life; a method which works particularly well for those of us who know that the best way to understand and appreciate a foreign culture is through its food. --Leora Y. Bloom

A peek at the French lifestyle:
I have been fortunate to visit France twice and was a guest in the home of a French lady who is a family friend. Joie de Vivre does a good job of describing the daily routine of the French and their attitudes toward food, family, friends, and enjoying life. I have never been as relaxed as I was when I was in France. Of course, I WAS on vacation, but it was still quite a relaxing experience. Things go at a slower pace than they do in the US and there is more enjoyment of simple things and simple times. Neighborhood grocers, patisseries, butcher shops, and bakeries, make it simpler to have fresh food every day. It also makes the experience of shopping for these items more enjoyable. We walked to the market, the bakery, etc. and it was wonderful. No zooming in the car to find a parking space. This book makes achieving the French lifestyle in the US sound like it would be simple. For those of us who don't live in cities with neighborhood shops, it is a great idea, but would take much more effort to achieve. Also, starting dinner at 8 p.m. sounds unreasonable. My daughter is bathed and in bed by this time and my husband and I are finishing dinner, cleaning the kitchen , and getting ready for a good night's sleep. The French do not watch much television which, I think, makes all the difference in how much extra time they have. They end their days later and start them later. It would be impossible for me to begin dinner at 8:30 p.m., go to bed at 11:30 p.m., get up at 6 a.m., get my daughter to school and myself to work by 8 a.m. Joie de Vivre can inspire you to add elements of the French lifestyle to your own life.

Limited look at modern French relationship to food:
Frenchman Robert Arbor owns several restaurants in NYC and New England. The purpose of his book is to share typical French attitudes toward food, friends and family with an American audience. The book is organized to reflect an ideal day which includes breakfast of bread and coffee, a few hours of marketing, lunch---weekday and weekend options, afternoon snack and dinner---with a dinner party option. Each section is followed by a few simple recipes. The reader learns a great deal about Arbor and his family and their home routines in both America and France. If one accepts Arbor's life as typical, then I suppose one can also accept his attitudes as typical, but the book would have benefited from other voices.

Truly a pleasure to read:
Robert Arbor describes daily life in France and how it differs from the average, typical American's day. The French take the time to savor their meals, converse with friends and family, and enjoy every aspect of daily life as much as possible. They don't rush about in a stressed-out state of mind, as many do here in the U.S. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and now, more than ever, want to make another trip to France. Aside from providing simple suggestions to make life more pleasurable, this book is full of wonderful, simple recipes. I've already made the Potatoes a la Nicole and quite a few batches of fresh strawberry jam (it's a hundred times better than any store-bought jam, and better for you!) If you're looking for an up-lifting, "feel-good" book that will help you improve your outlook on life in general, read Joie de Vivre. You'll be glad you did.

Slow food, more life, more real time.:
Finally... REAL French cookbook! That is, a cookbook that doesn't just tell you how to measure a cup of this and a teaspoon of that, but instead explains the basic French attitude towards food handling.... which Mr. Arbor argues is the essence of the French attitude towards life. If a person mastered the few meals in this book, he or she would never go hungry and would have many devoted friends. Such an enlightened person would never need to crack a cookbook either...although.... Robert Arbor does admit he never bakes at home and neither do most of his fellow French. (France is full of wonderful bakeries, afterall, and for baking most people really will need measuring devices, but that's a different book.) Arbor also gives advice on how to arrange one's kitchen, how to have a lovely time feeding guests (it's all in the timing) and how to have plenty to eat without resorting to junk or fast food. I plan to give this book to my twenty-something son for Christmas. (Either a woman will thank me oneday or he'll simply have a great time on his own.) It's a GREAT gift idea for any young person learning to set up house-keeping. Joie de vivre, indeed. My compliments to Arbor.

Simple But Effective:
We all know that the French love their food and take it very seriously. That's what they're famous for. In Joie de Vivre, Robert Arthur takes you through the different segments of the typical French day, starting with a simple and relaxing breakfast, and going all the way through the cup of herbal tea before retiring to bed. He explains in very simple language how to get the most out of even the simplest, most mundane things in life that Americans typically either take for granted or rush through in an effort to get to the next task. The French have learned to reap enjoyment from things that many other people have learned to treat as annoyances. By following at least some of the suggestions in this book, one can significantly reduce stress levels and will be able to enjoy life more thoroughly. Even doing something as simple as waking up half an hour earlier and having a quick and easy breakfast of coffee and toasted baguette with butter and preserves can make a huge difference and will likely lead the reader to try some of the other suggestions. The only thing I didn't like about the book is that at some points it seems to be written by a child. I don't know if this was done intentionally to emphasize the simplicity of it all, but it sometimes felt like I was reading a 7 year old's essay. If you can put up with a childish writing style, the ideas behind the words can make a world of difference in your life.