one more reason to go to france as often as humanly possible: from Critic's Notebook: An Epicure's 15-Course French Feast

"True to the Gallic film tradition, a handful of this year's movies portray French middle-class life (especially in Paris) as a movable feast in which good food, fine wine, elegant fashions, sexual sophistication and literary erudition together equal civility. Yes, American movies also celebrate living well, but they have a very different attitude toward the good life. Consumption, rather than being cozy and personal as it is in French movies, is usually conspicuous, often cold, and connected to status. In the imperial tradition it is more important to win the game of life than to enjoy it."