Plaisir, Epicureanism ... and A Bowl of Cereal

It all started with a box of cereal on sale. I do not buy Keollogg's here since at several Euros a box, I have more (let's say "frugal") options. But at 1.60 it was appealing, especially since I have never seen the "Extra" Pepites version. Granola, Dark Chocolate and Grilled Hazelnuts--yes, more like desert, and quite amazing for that purpose. But, as if decadent pictures of chocolate and hazelnuts were not enough, the back of the box draws us in the land of all its other variations, with the fairly innocent headline: "Variez les plaisirs!"

"Vary the pleasures." Right. Will do. Maybe on the next promotional sale. But wait a minute, there is more to this line. It just strikes me all of a sudden that one could not find a line like that on the U.S. version of the cereal. I, at least, do not recall such catch phrases on the U.S. boxes. You could read : "Enjoy them all" or "Try our other mouth-watering flavors" but certainly not "Vary the pleasures!" The word just seems odd in the context, doesn't it? We are not used to it in such associations, and yet in the French context it just makes sense. In fact, annoyingly so.

I say "annoyingly" because the word just started to stalk me. I pick up the phone the other day to catch up with a Romanian friend living in Paris. Unlike me, she has been here longer, has done her studies here and, well, appears to have set roots. She's cooking dinner, so I will not keep her long, but I mention in passing our brief vacation back to the States and the contrasts I have noted, asking her how she adjusted. "Well, you have to adapt, otherwise you won't be happy, " she says. "I like a lot of things here. I mean just think, in the middle of the day everyone eats lunch. The sun won't move in the sky." And then she said it: "You know, it's like they say, plaisir is the word that captures it."

Oh yes, I know what they say. The joie de vivre is already a cliche, isn't it? But this is just a reminder that I am an outsider. I, at the moment, while I believe I know how to enjoy myself and take pleasure in the little things, simply do not seem to "get" the emphasis on plaisir in the way it is so revered by other commentators on the French lifestyle. If I really love a walk on the first day of September--with crisp air already coming in and leaves turning early--and if I walk slowly to actually see some of the architecture I overlooked before, is that plaisir? Let's hope so, because then, I may be in on all this talk.

And it's the talk, really, that does it. I think one simply must learn to acquire a vocabulary that denotes plaisir. One needs to be able to describe it in order to experience it in a certain manner.

A cooking magazine article I read today seems to suggest there is a "training" involved in the process. The title , you guessed it, invokes this elusive plaisr: "My objective? To see the pleasure in all things." Unbeliavable, I said to myself. But I was still intrigued to read on, the interview with an author who published a series of experiential cook "notebooks" that allow the reader to record their own perceptions, recipes and experiences. These books are thematically entitled "Plaisir du Vin," "Plaisir du chocolat" and so on ... The interviewer asks:

Interviewer: "The word "pleasure"...is it the key word of your life?

Author Coco Tassel: "I believe that in each domain it is possible to extract pleasure from things. In each universe, in the kitchen as in life, there is pleasure. Surely, it manifests itself differently. The kind that we feel when we admire a painter's masterpiece is not the same as the one experienced when tasting a glass of wine. But the two allow an intense pleasure, one of the spirit, and the other of the body."

Interviewer: "But finding pleasure is not given to all ... According to you, how could one re-find this ability/sensation?

Coco Tassel: " One must educate the body and the spirit. My work entices the curiosity of the spirit and the sensitivity of the body so that they can know new sensations. The collection comprises six notebooks that offer keys to tasting. They analyze how to savor, step by step a good chocolate or an exceptional wine. ..."

Intriguing. Although I have my reservations about getting too carried away with this sort of epicurean/hedonistic language (too much fascination with plaisir verging on idolatry is not my preference, thank you), all this may have some answers about the subtleties of culture...why macaroons are so expensive and yet small. Or why my friend tells me that the women in her cooking group in town eat many very small portions and everyone has long conversations in between ... And yet, this may mean that the huge "vats" of Nutella (almost a kilogram and on sale at Carrefour) is for those of us like me, who still go for affordable quantity instead of the plaisir of tasting and enjoying slowly. I would imagine no one would catch Coco Tassel with one in her cart. But I bet she does not even shop at Carrefour (especially in light of her newest book, "I am all organic," a guide to do-able organic living). So who is she to speak of Nutella tubs? Let the expert speak.

So this way, I am beginning to educate myself in the secrets of what they mean by plaisir, because it truly is important to learn these subtexts of a culture, all the while remaining cautious in making the distinction between stereotyped aspects of life, and the local, everyday practices of people. And, may I add, common people. People like me. Not elites and food critics. Graduate students thrilled at the sight of a tasty cereal box on sale. Those trying to finish a dissertation on a 40-inch square kitchen-table turned desk, while still trying to make the best of this "French experience" so that later they will not look back regretting they did not "do enough." But wait--that's exactly the point. Plaisir is not doing. It is about enjoying. Even Google says so. That's Plaisir 101.