The French Art of Living: Complaining, alwys with Panache
In “The French art de vivre: 10 structuring notions”, we show that complaining isn’t just a bad French habit. It’s almost a useful art.
✨ Complaining isn’t about whining. It’s about never being satisfied with the status quo. It’s a quest: for more meaning, more beauty, more pleasure, more…
✨ Complaining “the French way” shouldn’t be gratuitous: it’s synonymous with a high standard that stimulates creativity and inventiveness.
✨ Complaining is also about defending one’s ideas, our ideas, with panache. By combining critical thinking, argumentation, humor, and elegance.
✨ Complaining then becomes a collective driving force: a way to debate, to confront, to invent other possibilities, to open up new paths.
As Stéphanie Rismont Wargnier, communications director for the SNCF group, said in our book: “The French are complainers and debaters. And perhaps this constant desire for something different has spurred creativity, spurred inventiveness…”
In short, complaining the French way is about cultivating a critical mind without sacrificing elegance. And you, when was the last time you complained… with panache?