“On Sundays I sleep,” a Parisian mobile company worker told me when I inquired about his schedule.
At least an hour break for lunch, topped by a siesta by the Seine, usually short workday on Wednesday, and a Sunday to sleep may appear bizarre (at least at first) to an American in Paris. Almost every New York City cliché involves insane work ethics and abnormal amounts of coffee to keep up with those. We tend to be very proud of our ability to utilize every moment, but why is it uncommon to allocate down time?
Sundays in Paris somewhat remind me of NYC streets after a snowstorm. Dead. Maybe a car will pass by once in a while or an elderly lady will walk down the street with a baguette, but not much more. Everything closed. Lights off, windows shut, and no sign to actually indicate “Closed.” It’s common sense for all Parisians. (Everything except the tourist traps; they are traps, after all, for not being actually authentic Parisian.)
One will not need more than two hands to count the open number of brunch spots in the entire city. A few coffee shops (more like pastry shops) here and there will drowsily cater to those in dire need of a croissant. But otherwise, Sundays are for family, friends, parks, hangovers, and most importantly, doing absolutely nothing.
In fact, there is nothing one can do about doing nothing. Society feeds off and even nourishes the concept of a "Lazy Sunday," much like Bruno Mars. Some Sundays, even cars are prohibited from entering or driving on city streets without receiving a not-so-laissez-faire fine for not staying home. When there isn’t much going on, one is forced to let their mind, body, and soul relax and absorb energy for the upcoming workweek.
Literally foreign, this concept neither has nor could ever apply in New York City, where Sundays mean brunch, mimosas, shopping, and/or catching up on work/school. Why don’t we take more time to take care of ourselves stateside?
“The French work 35 hours a week, obviously they’re lagging behind the US economy-wise,” an American friend has told me. That thinking requires equating Americans to mere machines that generate a salary. Society and surrounding should not require us to be endlessly functioning mechanisms, but instead ones that do need to shut down every once a in a while - or every seven days.
Sundays are traditionally a religious day off, but even in a rather secular society, maybe traditions stick around for a reason?
