No stress please we're .....................French !

[Miki]

I was in the Mairie this morning and right there in front of me was a poster asking me if I was stressed ??

It went on "Due to the way things can be these days, stress can be

caused by many emotions. If you want to come and talk about it, we are

having a meeting next week at the salle polyvalent. Everyone welcome to

discuss all the issues"

And somebody rather conected with this problem, whose name escaped me, would be there to assist in the meeting.

Well, what does that say about the myth ? No stress in France, the

French are an unhurried lot who appear to have all the time in the

world, they know how to eat and live correctly..............well, as

this was in France and in French , so I guess, not aimed at us lot and was on a pretty legal type of poster, (in

the way, this very much looked like it was printed by a government

body, like the secu) it  would suggest it is more than just in our

village and far more ranging.

Surely they couldn't have caught it from

the massive influx of ex- pats, shedding their stress, could they ?

[Val_2]

I've never seen so much stress as here in France and not just from us brits either. Everyone, but everyone I talk to has financial worries or job security problems as well as worrying about what the government are going to thrust upon us next. We personally are more stressed here in France than we were in the UK and we thought it was bad there. Drinking seems to be the magic solution to a lot of people here, you only have to see the men buying packs of beer and bottles of horrible cheap vin in plastic bottles and smell them pass you to know where their money is going, so no wonder the stress is taking over,trouble is when you wake up next day the problems are still there.

[chris pp]

I was a bit surprised to see that coming from you Miki, the French are about the most stressed up people I have ever come across in my life, all the easy going bits on the surface. I can't remember the figure exactly, but a few years back it was published that something like 70% of women in France take tranquilisers, either way it's the highest in Europe and has been noted by all alcohol is, how can I put it? regularly consumed could be an understatement.  The French people that I mix with think that the Brits are "super cool" and generally less fearful of authority!

Apologies to the French forum users, it's just the way it is, Chris

 

[le bouffon]

All the above and more,us brits have less stress.Ever worked for a french firm with real french bosses?I have and told more than one to.....ermm I will not work for them and walked away because I could,now if I were french I would eitheir be used to it or have to put up with it.We have more than one or two french friends who have told us they are on trancs,sad but true.

[Miki]

Oh dear, I am not much good at this irony lark am I [;)]

The point I was trying to make, was that all the Brits that come over

are so impressed by the people and their apparent laid back lifestyle

(remember, the French cemetaries are full of 100 year olds), good food,

good cooking etc, how it all looks on the surface and the Brits come

here to live the same lifestyle, don't they...............then, enter

the stress factor and now what do we have,  Brits often less stressed than

the people they admire [:)]

[The Riff-Raff Element]

[quote user="Miki"]Oh dear, I am not much good at this irony lark am I [;)]

The point I was trying to make, was that all the Brits that come over

are so impressed by the people and their apparent laid back lifestyle

(remember, the French cemetaries are full of 100 year olds), good food,

good cooking etc, how it all looks on the surface and the Brits come

here to live the same lifestyle, don't they...............then, enter

the stress factor and now what do we have,  Brits often less stressed than

the people they admire [:)]

[/quote]

It's a good point. If the amount of stress in the world is constant,

and I am less stressed (by an order of magnitude) than before I moved

to France ([H]), logically I must have passed my stress on to someone

else. Shame we can't choose really as there are a couple of people I

think would have benefited from my hypertension (or, at least, I would

have enjoyed seeing them bouncing off the ceiling like I used to).

The problem with stress is that is often very difficult to spot as a

casual observer. Most people are quite good at managing stress, or can

become so with a bit of training, which may be the idea behind the

poster in your Mairie, I suppose. Get them before they keel over, that

sort of thing.

[Teamedup]

How will these people who are stressed out have time to go to anti stress seances?

 

No stress in France is ofcourse another myth.

 

 

[Logan]

Stress, it's called hypochondria by another name. A national sport in France. Or that well known activity .....getting your monies worth from the mutuelle payments. The French worry about anything related to health issues. In fact they worry about everything under the sun. Then there's the fear factor. I suffered from fear living in France.............Fear of the power of chinless functionaires who break you on the wheel like a butterfly. Fear of paying out so much of your hard earned cash to support the state that you have nothing left to eat. It's fear which causes stress in the French population. Brits believe the balls they see on the telly because in the scheme of things the grass is always greener especially when its marketed by a film maker without scruple.

Brits suffer from another kind of stress. They worry about the bloke next door doing better than he. They don't have the fear factor in Britain but stress is stress wherever you are.

[le bouffon]

Stress is  a state of mind,a bit like poverty,it is all relative,