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After a day spent on research at the departmental archives in Montpellier, I wasn't in the mood for high–brow French culture. The shaded cafés of the city's gorgeous esplanade had much more appeal in the heat of a July evening. But the notice in the local paper had caught my eye. France Culture, the public radio station, and Le Monde, the left–leaning national daily, were holding a week–long conference on the question: "Are We More and More Conservative?"—the "we" being the French.
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The topic of conservatism in French society was meant to follow up on France's recent election of Nicolas Sarkozy as president. Known for his tough–talking manner, Sarkozy has made "work" the central value of his presidency. At the same time, he has managed to draw off leading socialists to serve in his government. In contrast to the predominantly male governments of Jacques Chirac, women now form half of the new cabinet, with Rachida Dati, the daughter of North African immigrants, as Justice Minister. Political maneuvering aside, Sarkozy seems determined to mix left and right–wing policies to keep his critics and own party members guessing.
When I arrived at the conference site, all the seats were taken and I had to sit on the ground. Intellectual debate was alive and living well in southern France. I had only skimmed the conference's daily program and was expecting a discussion on conservatism and religious toleration. In fact, the panel was set to discuss the boundaries of sexual toleration.
The moderator began by throwing out a slogan from France's May 1968 uprising, jouir sans entraves (loosely translated, "enjoy sex without obstacles"). He asked the panel to address the waning of such free love ideology. A child psychologist, a philosopher, a historian, and a lawyer then gave ten–minute interventions—mini–speeches that danced around the question and managed to summarize their own books, all for sale at a table near the door. In the end, I was not sure what they really thought, except for their sense that France is not "obstacle" free, despite the major changes in society since the '60s (drop in marriage rates, legalization of abortion, homosexual civil unions).
Long before Sarkozy's election, writer and journalist Jean–Paul Dubois caught the tension between conservative trends in France and the heritage of the 1968 revolution. In his novel Vie Française, first published in 2004 and now available in English translation, Dubois begins the narrative with the start of the Fifth Republic in 1958 and the news that the hero, Paul Blick, has lost his elder brother. From de Gaulle to Jacques Chirac, Blick's life parallels the presidential eras of the new republic, from youth to middle age. (It should be noted that the title of the novel in French is "Une vie française." Blick's life is not meant to be representative of all French life, so the change in title is questionable.)
As he finishes high school, Blick participates in the '68 uprisings and then lives the life of a radical university student in the early '70s before marrying into the middle class. The '80s and '90s bring wealth and fame when he becomes a successful nature photographer. At the start of this century, his wife bankrupts her company and dies in an accident with her lover, leaving Blick jilted and broke. Like John Updike's Rabbit Angstrom, Blick obsesses over sex as a young man, becomes rich, then faces financial disaster, and finally opts for celibacy in his lonesome middle age.
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