Majicman Notes

In this culture appearances are all-important.

The French are not only obsessed with Beauty in all of its manifestations; it is a value in itself.

Everyone – in their physical being, their dress, their lives, their work, their homes – aspires either to La Beauté or to l’Elégance , its more democratic twin. No one is ashamed of this love of Beauty. It is triumphed and trumpeted everywhere you look.

You only have to spend about ten minutes in France’s capital city to feel the truth of this: the grand vistas, the façades, the fountains, the cobbles, the bridges, the lighting, the shop windows, the signage, the awnings, the street furniture, even the men in fluorescent green who pick up your rubbish before it hits the ground, all conspire to achieve one thing – to keep everything looking beautiful. Paris is all about Beauty. Everything else – including such things as commercial gain, prosperity or efficiency is secondary.

For the French, Beauty does not reside exclusively in the past. It is a living, breathing, endlessly mutating deity. They’re not afraid of modernity, as long as it is beautiful.

Lucy Wadham

Secret life of France