American vacations vs. French vacations

[tagryn]

I went looking for one of my favorite writers, William Langewiesche, after not seeing anything from him in Atlantic Monthly in a long time. Turns out he moved over to Vanity Fair, which has his articles for them online here.

I particularly liked this passage from an article on Somali piracy, on how American and French differ in how they approach "vacation" as a concept:

Many of the trips were full charters. Among the national groups, the French were the easiest to handle, if not necessarily to like. They slept late, savored the refined cuisine, and demanded little of an itinerary beyond the chance to lie in the sun. They could be imperious with the waiters and maids, but overall they were simple to satisfy. American passengers were different—individually more accessible than the French, but collectively exhausting. The problem seemed to stem from a lack of skepticism, or of philosophical distance from themselves. Certainly this was not true of all Americans, but it did seem to apply to the types who came to these cruises. They sincerely regarded traveling on the Ponant as an opportunity for self-improvement. They would read up beforehand (from recommended lists), and then appear for the trips with sunblock creams and special shoes, accompanied by lecturers who were expected to enrich their minds. They were nice people, but of the sort who go for swims wearing long-brimmed visors and drawstring hats. Rather than lingering late in the Ponant’s bar, they retired after dining because they wanted to be fresh for sunrise departures and goal-oriented hikes. They did not walk, but trekked. They did not like long lunches of nouvelle cuisine. Midday they preferred quick meals of barbecued burgers and New York cheesecake, or Caesar salad. They did not mean to offend. But their tastes were insulting to the chef, and upsetting by birthright to the crew.

Comments

[tagryn]

Facebook comment:

Jason Kulp: An interesting read and totally believable. Unfortunately I think that the default pace and attitude of American life, some of which is and societal and the rest of which is self inflicted, is more than evident to anyone living outside of the US. We cram as much into our schedules as possible, make sure we get as much bang for our buck out of our ... Read Morevacation time (total of which is miniscule compared to most nations), buy bigger houses and more cars than we need so we have to work more hours and/or be under more stress, make sure we're keeping up with the Jones's, repeat until we retire or die. At best we might be able to stifle the high octane drive for a week or two of vacation but the underlying attitude will still be there.