Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Memory Is a Strange Place

I ate lunch today at La Croissanterie, a French version of "fast food" of a sort. It serves sandwiches (on baguettes, of course), desserts, salads -- typical French lunch fare. But I realized that it's a strange combination of past and present.

The decor is a kind of pseudo-French country pastiche featuring paintings of cows and sheep. The floor is wooden and has a rustic look, like a barn. The women working there wear a sort of bonnet that makes them look like milkmaids. On the menu, they use words like "terroir," which means "soil," but in a very charged way that is more like "homeland," some place to which one has an emotional connection. And their slogan is "Le gout de natural" -- the natural taste, or the taste of nature. Clearly, this restaurant plays on a "return to the land" and a sense of tradition.

But the set-up is extremely modern and efficient -- some would say American. One proceeds through the line almost cafeteria style. There is no table service. The furniture and many of the light fixtures are sleek and hip in bright colors. And there is nothing rustic about having your sandwich served on a real plate and being given a plastic cup into which to pour your soda. In these details, urban civilization reigns supreme.

It occurred to me that La Croissanterie -- like many other places in Paris and in the US (Cracker Barrel comes to mind) -- are selling nostalgia back to their customers. They evoke a mythical rural past which seems comforting and pleasant -- simpler and more "natural" -- even though, historically, many people worked very hard to leave that rural life behind and live more modern lives. They make us feel safe by recycling myths about "the way we never were," and sell sandwiches in the process. But by throwing in a little bit of modern life, they make us feel safe too. After all, if we tried to eat our sandwiches amidst real cows and sheep in a rustic barn, we might not go back.

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