Yes, French people feel (and express) excitement (AUDIO & TEXT)

...they just use very different terminology, and a broader emotional palette, to show their enthusiasm.

A 19th-century lithograph engraving reads ‘Called back [on stage] with enthusiasm!…’ (Musée Carnavalet/Wikimedia Commons)

Dear Subscribers,

Lately, amid the excitement that the Paris Olympics have (improbably?) stirred up in residents best known for either expressing blasé indifference — or making apocalyptic assertions about how terrible things will turn out to be— I’ve seen a lot of online chatter about how the French don’t usually get excited about anything. Or, in any case, are loath to express excitement. It's supposedly seen as unseemly to do so in French culture.

But while there are some compelling pieces out there on this topic that tackle this question in a nuanced and smart way (including this one at the BBC from Emily Monaco, a recommended read), all the glib analysis in recent press about how shocking it is to see Parisians dancing in the street amid the Games, or demonstrating a sense of civic pride and responsibility as they enthusiastically help direct lost tourists, has sent my eyes rolling heavenward.

Sure, French culture is one that doesn’t typically hold back much, or at all, when it comes to complaining and negatively prognosticating. That doesn’t, however, make the culture joyless, or incapable of expressing excitement. They just use a very different linguistic and emotive palette. Let’s take a (brief) look.

(Complain) one more time with feeling!

Since we were already on the subject of la râlerie (complaining): I won’t argue with the fact that this is something of a national sport, at least in Paris (I can’t speak authoritatively of other regional cultures). But people often winge with a sense of enthusiasm and even passion (cue the groans). Let me explain: there’s a tinge of commiseration and camaraderie in many acts of complaint in France, whether it’s turning to your neighbor in a long line at the supermarket and saying “Et bien, looks like we may not make it home for dinner!” or kvetching with colleagues about how terrible the coffee is from the machine that HR proudly installed last week.