SOMETIMES WE FEEL EMPTy But it isn’t hunger… the French Food Culture helps fill that void.
Sojourners sharing a meal in a Parisian restaurant.
Sojourners sharing a homecooked Live-Like-a-Local meal in Provence.
RESTORATIVE FRENCH LIFESTYLE Trips For Women
France has a special healing power that comes from the French commitment to perpetuate their ancestral connection to the earth. Sure, many people associate the French with highbrow culture, luxury, the arts, philosophy, beauty… and, they aren’t wrong! But, France also has a cultural spirituality grounded in the land, the people who work the land and the consumption of products of the earth —and that is foundation for the French lifestyle. A lifestyle that places significance on food, agriculture, viticulture, artisanal products and cooking as the magnetic force that draws lone individuals into social communities and grounds lost hearts with a personal connection to the earth. This food culture unites France with the other Latin countries of Mediterranean: Spain and Italy. The magical healing power of food in the Romance countries healed the heart of author Frances Mayes and inspired her to write Under the Tuscan Sun and inspired Lisa Gustavson to start Sojourner tours.
Example of a French-Swiss Borderland meal.
Sojourner celebrating a birthday with guide Lisa
Guide Francis buying goat cheese from a favorite market vendor
Sojourners touring a castle
A Broken Heart
From the time she was a young girl, there was a void in Lisa’s heart that turned her into a life-long searcher on a quest for the love that would fill the hole within her. As a young girl, she adored her father who ushered her into the world with a belief that every creature has value by teaching her not to kill spiders in the house but to gently transport them outdoors. In his sophomore year at Harvard, a mental breakdown left him permanently disabled so he stayed at home writing poetry and watching over Lisa. The weight of his disability led Lisa’s parents to divorce when she was five. Lisa’s mother was a striking woman who’d done a little modeling before becoming a nurse; she loved to sew and decorate the humble Appalachian home where she raised Lisa. When Lisa was fifteen, her mother’s tremendous strength as a working single mother gave way to illness. Lisa was taken in by her father’s brother and his French-Algerian wife. In their bi-lingual bi-cultural home, Lisa began to pick up the linguistic skills and cultural practices that would eventually lead her to spend a junior year abroad in France where she met her French husband who became the doorman who ushered her into the French life. Losing both parents left Lisa wanting for community and groundedness —she was adrift in the world feeling alone and discarded even in the presence of others, even in a romantic partnership… and the French lifestyle offered her a way to heal through food.
Lisa came to see the wellness powers of French food is a departure from the American fuel-the-body “health food” concept that focuses on WHAT you eat. Through her French family, Lisa came to believe that HOW you eat, WHERE you eat an WHEN you eat enables you to nourish your heart while WHAT goes in your mouth sustains your body.
Lisa marrying Francis in his grandmother’s village. 2002
Sustain Your body & fill your heart
French food culture provided Lisa with a healing tool in the form of an emotional anchor she could use to feel moored and connected to the local community wherever she traveled. The French have such a particular philosophy of food that UNESCO recognizes the French gastronomic meal as part of the world’s Intangible Cultural Heritage. If you’ve read Mirille Guiliano’s French Women Don’t Get Fat you understand that one of the distinguishing features is a focus on pleasure: the goal of a French meal isn’t to feel “full” but rather satisfied. Quality is more important than quantity and French people would prefer to pay more to get less if it means obtaining something better. When you have less, you eat slower and savor it more… engaging all your senses to take in the visual… the aromatic… the textural… the flavor of what you are eating. Basically, in France, less is more!
What “better” means is subjective, but the French generally agree that when food is local, traditional, artisanal… that scarcity and uniqueness lend value making something a precious treasure. This value is one way of defining terroir which leads the French government to reinforce the value of local, handmade foods through a positive A.O.C. labeling system that promotes the prioritization of purchasing non-industrial foods. Rowan Jacobsen beautifully explains the concept in the introduction to his book American Terroir concluding, “Paying attention to terroir is one of the best and most enjoyable ways to reestablish [our] relationship [with the earth and the rural people who nurture the land]. It can teach us about who we are, why we like what we like and how we go about living on the earth. It can allow us to rediscover a romance that is exhilarating, fortifying and real.” Michelin star chefs are both artists as well as ambassadors of local farmers and this food philosophy -so, eating in a Michelin starred restaurant is an opportunity to experience love: love of the earth, love of the local farmers, love of the local artisans and love of yourself which is why Lisa includes dining in one on every sojourn itinerary.
Lisa was indoctrinated into the French food philosophy and food practices during the summers she spent with her in-laws. Then, the year that the Fukushima Nuclear Accident led her to take refuge with her husband’s cousins in the countryside she seized the opportunity to immerse herself in mastering this French way of being as part of the process of healing her trauma.
Some of the Heart Healing Tenets of French Food that Lisa incorporates in sojourns are:
1. Get in touch with the seasons, your environment and the farmers in your community by eating close to the earth -grow and harvest unprocessed foods yourself if you can, if you can’t then shop regularly at a farmer’s market and experience the warm interdependence of supporting the person who grows the food that sustains you.
2. Expand your reciprocal relationships within the community by eating close to home -make it yourself if you can, if you can’t then become a regular at an artisanal co-op or specialized boutique like a bakery where your face will become familiar as an appreciated supporter to the person who makes the food that sustains you.
3. Prioritize quality over quantity.
4. Savor each bite with every sense.
5. Treat meals as a ritual with a set time, place and procedure so you can anticipate, enjoy and reflect upon what you eat with joy.
Using this way of thinking Lisa has designed sojourns so that you can experience an immersion in the French food culture.
A sojourner in Provence shopping in the markets for her contribution to the group “potluck” picnic with the assistance of guide Francis.
A LOOK AT Lisa’s FRENCH FAmily FOOD PRACTICES…
Lisa’s Boys Picking Fruit
The Tarts, Jam, Liqueur & Sorbet Lisa Made with the Raspberries, Cherries and Currents they Picked
Lisa’s Boys (big and little ;) Shopping Locally from a Rural Farmer & Village Baker
Enjoying an Aperitif at Papie’s Place before a Meal with Auntie, Uncle and Cousin
Eating a Gastronomic Meal at Great Auntie & Uncle’s Home
Leisure Time after Meals with our French Family and Friends
Playing Petanque, Lounging by the Pool, Strolling in the Countryside
