French are 'taught to be gloomy by their culture' France, once famous for its joie de vivre, is suffering from existential gloom – and the French have only themselves to blame for their malaise, according to a study to be presented in London next month.
Research by a French academic to be delivered to the Royal Economic Society suggests that the country's citizens are "taught" to be miserable by elements of their own culture. Claudia Senik, a professor at the Paris School of Economics, argues that her country's education system and its cultural "mentality" make the French far less happy than their wealth and lifestyle suggest they should be. The French enjoy a high standard of living, Senik notes. The country has a generous welfare state, plus universal and free access to healthcare, hospitals, public schools and universities.
It also has a 35-hour working week and many foreigners aspire to make it their home – 150,000 Britons have chosen to live there. When a man is tired of Paris … ‘After more than a decade I can say: beneath the snooty unfriendly façade, Paris is a snooty, unfriendly city’ ©Luis Grañena As we all climbed off the Eurostar on to the platform at the Gare du Nord the other evening, an electric luggage-truck rattled straight at us, hooting angrily.
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