I'm french guy, I love traveling and asking around about what others people think about my country and its people. I often meet with people who answer me, even without asking : oh! you are french , France is so romantic and beautiful, french men are so romantic, and blablabla and blablabla. I love it but, WTF Paul ?? what's goin on ! Why are you saying this , I'm certainly not so romantic as you say ;). Well... maybe yes, but I wasn't aware of it..
So I decide to write a small article on this topic to understand the ins and outs of it.
Here are identified some of the main reasons that can explain why french are perceived as romantic :
1. The cadre is beautiful
France has beautiful places, like historic cities , vineyards and natural landscapes. Paris as everybody knows, is full of monuments (but also Lille, Bordeaux, Lion, etc) , the Seine river, multitudes of cultural centers,museums, flower markets, art markets, churches and many secret paths to secretly catch your lover at night. It sounds like France is the perfect theater to create those incredible love stories that every women (and men surely) dream about ?
2. Cultural and psychological perspective
One of the most important of all, and I say this with humility as everyone knows ( ;) ). French people will always conscientiously or not, place the independent thinking and the search of uniqueness at first in their decision and actions, even if it is not useful ;) , this often leads to endless discussion to finally find out that everybody own a part of the truth but didn't succeed to attract enough personal recognition (Ego). Yes, this is typical for french people to have some kind of a moral opinion on everything, I suppose it is the most annoying paternalist aspect of our life but also a very funny one.
The good point is that this mindset is reflecting our christian roots : like looking for what is fair , what meaningful to do or not, or rejecting too materialistic interests, etc. Also, there is the famous Enlightenment period in which many artists, writers and phylosophers help France to free itself from middle age thinking and it leads out to human rights, freedom of speech , more arts and so on.
To simplify, and for the reasons explained previously, french mindset is very idealistic and love expressing opinions on everything without worrying about talking nonsens. I suppose all of this makes french people very expressive, cute, creative and somekind innocent.
To close this part, Innocence and Independant mind are the secret, and it helps us to do whatever we want and women certainly love it.
3. Sexual Politeness an delicacy
Young boys and girls are taught very soon to be very polite (bonjour, merci, au revoir, etc.) at every doors and every corners. Politeness is at the core of french social interaction and nobody will agree to talk with you if you do not respect those rules.
In other words, any movements , any decisions will be first mutually/psychologically agreed and nobody will force you to do something that you do not want to. In my opinion, french men are very influenced by this educational frame and this also is reflecting into our love habits.
A french will always make sure you are and he is psychologically ready before trying anything, if not , he will find a way to make you happy. There is nothing felt better than something truly shared.
4. Physical Aspect and Attitude
French men aren't specially very tall or very muscular but they attach great importance to be them-selves, natural and simple , they do not like following fashion standards or stick to a "you should be like this" , they do not like to copy , they just like to be the way they like, they like talking and touching but always in a balanced way in order to respect the person in front of them. As I said previously , they are innocents !
To finish this post I would like to share this quote from Victor Hugo which reflect perfectly how a french may understand Love:
Best to everyone
Yorden Reinhart