Enjoy the life like a French

French Lifestyle Tips The Corner likes

French living is more than tossing a baguette into your basket and popping open a bottle of wine, although that doesn’t hurt either. Instead, embracing the French lifestyle and culture is more about adopting some simple practices into your everyday life.

Embrace meal times

For the French, meal time is sacred. Dedicating time each day to sit down and savor your meal is something the French have embraced and practiced in their society since forever. While it may not be realistic to spend an hour over every meal or always have loved ones around to sit down and eat a meal with, the least we can do is simply sit down and eat our meal with some relaxing music rather than scarfing down a meal in front of the tv or in a rush at the kitchen counter.

Practice: less is more

Perhaps one of my favorite aspects of French living is the ability to effortlessly practice the concept of less is more. This practice particularly shines when it comes to French shopping habits. The French are often forced to practice a less is more mentality because of space limitations. The closets, in particular, are tiny and limit the French’s ability to amass tons of clothing. That is in fact becoming very trendy.

Instead, the French create capsule wardrobes, where a set of basic, high-quality pieces are curated into a closet that the person can practically and fashionably wear on a routine basis. Creating such a wardrobe will not only clear up physical space in your home, but will free up your mind and wallet for better use.

Practice a little joie de vivre

As cliché as it sounds, practicing the “joy of living” is one of the most fundamental components of French life. Now, this doesn’t mean dancing around town and singing about how great life is although you can if you want!

The way I’ve always perceived joie de vivre and how the French practice this concept is in the way they savor the simple pleasures in life. For instance, it’s very common to find the French sitting at the park in those classic green, Parisian park chairs as soon as the sun peeks out from behind the clouds. They’ll soak up every inkling of sunshine by simply sitting in the chairs and excelling at the art of doing nothing.

Finding beauty and joy in the stillness and in the things that are already here on earth for us to appreciate and be grateful for can be one of the most life-changing French habits that you adopt and practice, regardless of where you live.