The workmen down our street have been slowly putting the finishing touches on a new house at the end of our tiny alley. Given that there are only three other homes on our street – two of which are mostly unrented summer vacation homes and the other inhabited by an elderly woman who lives alone – these comings and goings pique my interest.
When we moved in, the large tri-level house was mostly completed on the outside. The majority of the work had moved to the interior and to the terraced landscape where a rotating complement of construction workers are building a pool. They have been laboring at this pool now for months making progress steadily, but without haste.
The speed is not for a lack of workmen or equipment. Like dedicated ants, they funnel in each morning and out again as the sun sets. Immense trucks back down our impossibly-narrow alleyway (past the Driveway of Doom) delivering small CAT trucks, rebar, or cement, and hauling out loads of dirt and rocks.
I hear the workmen shout and laugh during the day and it makes me smile to hear their chatter. They stop for a smoke, a coffee and a chat sharing stories of their conquests on and off the job site. They are purposeful in their efforts, but don’t seem terribly taken by the need to produce any specific outcome by any specific deadline. They do what they need to and call it a day.
Before I moved to France, I bought a t-shirt that said simply “Ça suffit!” (meaning, “That’s enough!”). This shirt is a wonderful collaboration between the designer Clare Vivier and Everytown For Gun Safety[1]. After the massacre in Uvalde, and clearly having had enough of shootings of this nature, I was happy to support the cause.
Wearing the shirt here however sometimes feels silly because the French aren’t quite sure what to make of it. “You’ve had enough of what?”, they seem to think as they peer at me with a questioning gaze from across the market or school parking lot – making the same quizzical face people had when the first “I’m With Stupid” shirts debuted.
I’ve tried to explain it’s meaning to a few people. However, being in a country that first enacted gun legislation in 1563, the conversations quickly devolve into how crazy Americans can be. “What do you need all those guns for anyway?” they ask.
And don’t try to talk about the need to have a self-defended populous because they will point out that they fought an entire revolution and helped defeat the Nazi’s without personal surpluses of semi-automatic firearms. Hard to debate that…c’est la vie.
Beyond it’s intended meaning, my shirt has come to represent something else to me as well. Being good enough, average, mediocre can be ok. So, I’ve been experimenting with doing less and being more here.
My perfectionism likes to tell me that I’ve lost my damn mind in these moments. Yet given that I tend to over-hustle, over-care, and over-do almost everything, a healthy dose of ça suffit! isn’t a bad thing.
I finished reading “My Life in France” by Julia Child (a wonderful gift from my friend, Dana) on our flight here. In one section, Julia talks about how consultants were brought in from the US after WWII to build back the industry in France and pass along some of the American capitalistic drive.
After many meetings, these consultants quickly became frustrated when the business owners rejected most of their suggestions on how to build scale and cut costs. The French businesses were fine just as they were – no need to expand their product lines or extend business hours – they had enough. Ça suffit!
And much of that exists still today in our village. The post office and many shops close for two and a half hours at lunch time to rest. Most businesses shut down at noon on Sunday and don’t reopen until Tuesday, causing quite a bustle on either side.
Our wonderful Tarte Mouginoise is closed for the two-week Toussaint holiday. Stores don’t mind if you have to wait in a long line at the checkout counter or if they stock out of the type of cereal you came in to buy. Ça suffit!
I think that’s what I’ve come to appreciate about the workers down the street. They show up, they do their jobs to the best of their ability during the hours they have, and then – ça suffit – they leave. No overtime, no pushing themselves to unload the last bit of supplies from the truck, no need to clean up the mound of dirt in the middle of the alley.
They prioritize living their lives, having relationships, enjoying all the pleasures of life. They respect their time and know that there is balance between work and play, effort and ease.
And somehow that just feels right.
[1] Check out Clare Vivier’s website for more information: https://www.clarev.com/products/original-tee-grey-w-poppy-ca-suffit
40 Weeks in France 