There is something about the French that has always intrigued me. From their style and fashion senseabilities, to their simplified and joyful way of life, I have always envied not being born and raised in Paris, or even some obscure farm town in France.

Since I can remember, I have always wanted to wear berets out in public, striped shirts, and strings of pearls, bordering on the obscene, all the time. I purchased many many books about ‘how to live like French women’. I would read them from cover to cover, and then keep them by my bedside to re-read them over and over when the urge of a little French passion struck.

The French look at life with pleasure, seeking out the joys and simplicities of the heart to make themselves happy. They cook and bake as part of a family, it’s not some meaningless task, it’s something to bring people together. Wine with every meals, meals are always eaten sitting down, savouring every bite. People walk everywhere, if they can. It seems they are less concerned about others and more concerned about themselves.

Sure, there are mistresses, passionate loves and heartaches, and that certain cynicism that some Parisians do entail – but I love it all. My life is always searching for passion, a passion that the French seemingly always have.

Passion makes you feel alive.

I look for passion in everything. Everything I do, I try to see how it will benefit me – and if it doesn’t, what’s the point? This principle I apply to many things in my life.

Some of you may know that I have been with J for five and a half years, he’s a man that works hard, waking up as early as five in the morning, working til the sun goes down, and spending a few hours with me before succumbing to his exhaustion and going to bed. But, in all of this normality, I need passion. And he understands. In the little kisses, in the passionate kisses, in the phone calls – I sometimes demand it. For if there is no passion, what is there?

I have a little theory budding inside of me, about divorce and break-ups and affairs. I feel if you let the passion out of your relationship, that little bit of spice that brought you together, if you let that go, well, of course someone will get bored and look for it elsewhere!

Being with someone for a long time brings about many emotions, feelings, periods of time that you go through that may be filled with joy, and some that will be filled with confusion and maybe sadness. There is a comfort level you acheive that makes both of you happy, but with it, you gain the risk of getting too comfortable, and being too comfortable for too long advocates boredom and resentment.

As time flies by, we get older, and we may change, physically, mentally, and emotionally. But the essence of who we are should always still be there - things we’re passionate about, things that ground us – whether it’s music, art, writing, photography, running, performing, producing – whatever is our passion in life, what drives us from within – we should always strive to have that within us.

Life gets in the way. Responsibilities. Work, careers, jobs. Things we should enjoy, but end up resenting because it isn’t what we always wanted to do. Which is why we need to continue to do things that make us happy, find the pleasures in life, thngs that make life worth living.

Across the street, a house went up for sale. A forty-something couple, with three children, no younger than sixteen, are splitting up and parting ways. Never married, he an alcoholic, she lost her job last year. I don’t know them that well, other than neighborhood gossip courtesy of J’s mother, but I still find it sad. Sad that after twenty years together a couple will split.

Sometimes it’s for the best. Sometimes it’s for no reason at all, other than people seeking passion outside of what they have, out of resentment, perhaps, out of boredom.

I never want passion to leave my life.

Books I enjoy about the French life:

Entre Nous: A Woman’s Guide to Finding Her Inner French Girl
A personal favourite of mine, covering many aspects of a French woman’s life.

All You Need to be Impossibly French
A quick read, very cute as well!

French Women Don’t Get Fat
How to eat and be slim for life.