France Invented the Existential Crisis. It Did Not Invent the Sports Car as Response, But It Has Refined the Concept.
PARIS — The French midlife crisis is, characteristically, more philosophically coherent than its Anglo-American equivalent. The American midlife crisis produces the sports car, the younger partner, the tattoo. The French midlife crisis produces the sports car, the younger partner, and a serious engagement with the question of whether these acquisitions address the underlying condition they appear to be addressing, which they do not, but which the French person understands and continues anyway because the sports car is excellent and the question of mortality will not be resolved by its absence. France buys the car and keeps the question. This is either more honest or more complicated than the American version. It is both.
The Specific Purchases
Paris midlife crisis purchases have a specific aesthetic: the return to a hobby abandoned at 22 for professional reasons (the guitar, the painting supplies, the sailing lessons), the premium version of something previously purchased at the entry level (the coffee machine that costs more than the refrigerator, the bicycle that costs more than some cars), and the trip to a place that has been on the list for thirty years and was always postponed for reasons that no longer apply. The trip is usually the best of these. The guitar and the painting supplies are approached with genuine commitment that lasts three months and then becomes a storage question. The premium coffee machine produces excellent coffee every morning for the rest of the owner’s life. According to Statista’s French consumer spending data, luxury goods purchases by the 45-60 demographic in France have grown 28% in five years. The midlife market is real. The products are good. The existential question remains open. The coffee is excellent.
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