A recent survey suggested that in the UK the average length of a lunchtime had atrophied to below 20 minutes, and most of that was the time required to purchase a sandwich which was then consumed back at the desk (the survey did seem biased towards office workers).
We don’t know what happens in urban France because we have little experience of that, it may be similar to the UK, but in rural France lunchtime still seems to be accorded respect and a generous allowance of time. Part of this is due to the organisation of the working day with a long break in the middle of the day and later working into the early evening, a sensible arrangement in Southern France where it is very hot in the middle of the day – currently in the mid 30s Centigrade during our mid-September vacation. It would be little use to have such a lengthy lunch hour if there were only sandwiches to eat but fortunately France provides much better lunchtime fare – usually in the form of le menu du jour.
We enjoyed a leisurely lunch today in Montcuq after our visit to the wine merchant’s and another last week in a square in Nerac. Both lunches provided remarkable value from a 12 Euro menu du jour – three courses with a substantial salad as entrée, a main course of meat or fish with vegetables and a dessert. At both restaurants lunch was a very egalitarian affair frequented by smartly dressed office workers in suits and ties, workpeople arriving in from hard manual work in white vans, older couples who had come from sleepy rural areas for market day and a few tourists such as ourselves. All seemed to be enjoying their lunch and many seemed to be taking the opportunity of meeting friends and work colleagues, there were few life partners dining together. It seemed to us that lunch was performing a very useful function of social cohesion in many different ways that is rarely seen in the UK.
We wondered about the relative merits of snatched sandwiches and leisurely menu de jours in terms of work efficiency. Does the French working day mean that workers work at a relatively efficient level all day because they have a long break in the middle whereas UK workers might experience a fall in concentration and efficiency in the late afternoon? Is the amount of time spent at lunch in France simply too long to be as efficient as the desk-bound UK workers? Do French workers waste less time at work on gossip and browsing the internet because they have a long lunch hour when they can catch up with friends and acquitances? Does the French daily schedule taper the effects of rush hour travelling that afflicts much of the UK? If there is evidence which supports the French routine then the UK restaurants are going to have sort their menu du jours out ready for the rush.
Food Matters 