The French Art of True Relaxation: What American Professional Women Need to Know

A month to simply exist, breathe, and be—what if this wasn't indulgent, but essential?

I just returned from France, where I watched my cousins begin their monthlong vacation with an ease that can feel almost foreign to American sensibilities. No agenda. No guilt. No underlying current of "I should be doing something productive." Just the simple, radical act of truly relaxing.

What we've lost in our relentless pursuit of productivity?—and what we might gain if we dared to embrace the French approach to rest.

The Great Divide: Two Philosophies of Living

The contrast between French and American attitudes toward vacation and rest isn't just cultural preference—it's a fundamental difference in how we view human worth and well-being.

In France, labor laws are clear: every full-time employee is granted a minimum of 5 weeks of paid PTO (it could go to 7 weeks for specific types of workers), compared to the American average of just two weeks annually. But the difference runs deeper than policy. The French however, have work-life balance down. This is in no small part due to the government regulating work hours and the cultural importance of vacation and family time.

While for Americans, an ever-present pull to be faster, stronger, and better is baked into our work culture, the French operate from a fundamentally different premise: that humans are meant to live, not just work. They've created systems that support this belief, recognizing rest as a right, not a privilege to be earned.

The Science of Deep Rest: Why a Month Matters

For American professional women especially, the idea of a monthlong vacation feels almost scandalous. We've been conditioned to believe that our value lies in our constant productivity, our ability to juggle endless responsibilities while maintaining the appearance of effortless competence. But research reveals what the French have long understood: extended rest isn't luxury—it's necessity.

The results suggest that vacation has positive effects on health and well-being, but that these effects soon fade out after work resumption. This finding is crucial: the benefits of short vacations dissipate quickly, suggesting that longer periods of rest might be needed to create lasting change.

Studies specifically tracking women's health show profound benefits from regular, extended rest periods. Researchers tracking 749 women from Massachusetts over two decades discovered that those who took multiple annual vacations were less likely to develop heart problems. The inverse was equally telling—women who took vacations less than once every six years faced significantly higher health risks.

The University of Pittsburgh's Mind-Body Center found vacations increase pleasant emotions while reducing depression, while women who take vacations frequently are less likely to become tense, depressed or tired and are more satisfied with their marriages.

What Happens When We Truly Let Go

Imagine this: a extended break where your worth isn't measured by your output. Where you don't check emails, don't feel guilty for sleeping late, don't mentally catalog your to-do list while pretending to relax. What would emerge from such profound rest?

Physical Restoration: Our bodies would finally have time to heal from chronic stress. Taking a vacation provides greater opportunity for rest and better sleep (both quantity and quality), which can help unclutter your mind to boost creativity. Extended rest allows our nervous systems to shift from survival mode to restoration mode.

Mental Renaissance: Professional women often operate in a state of constant problem-solving, decision-making, and responsibility-carrying. A vacation of true rest would allow our minds to wander, wonder, and reconnect with parts of ourselves that get buried under deadlines and obligations.

Relationship Renewal: When we're not constantly managing our energy for work demands, we have more to give to our relationships. We become more present with our partners, more patient with our children, more generous with our friends.

Creative Awakening: Some of our most innovative thoughts emerge not from forcing productivity, but from allowing space for inspiration. A quiet, long vacation of rest could unlock creative potential that's been dormant under the weight of daily demands.

The Ripple Effect: How Deep Rest Transforms Everything

The benefits of truly extended rest extend far beyond the individual. For each additional 10 hours of vacation employees took, their year-end performance ratings improved 8 percent, and frequent vacationers also were significantly more successful professionally. The paradox is profound: by doing less, we become more effective.

For midlife professional women, this is particularly significant. We're often at our career peaks while simultaneously managing complex family responsibilities, aging parents, and our own changing bodies and priorities. The French model offers a different way: regular, extensive periods of rest that allow us to show up more fully to all aspects of our lives.

Learning the Art of True Relaxation

The French approach to vacation isn't just about time off—it's about the quality of that time. They've mastered the art of being present, of savoring experiences without the need to document or optimize them. They understand that relaxation is a skill that requires practice.

Here's what American professional women can learn from the French art of relaxation:

Permission to Be Unproductive: The first step is internal—giving ourselves permission to exist without achievement. This might be the hardest lesson for American women who've been rewarded their entire lives for doing, achieving, and excelling.

Boundaries as Sacred: The French protect their rest time fiercely. Emails go unanswered, work calls are declined, and the concept of a "working vacation" is largely foreign. Rest requires boundaries, and boundaries require courage.

Presence Over Planning: Instead of filling time off with elaborate itineraries, the French embrace the luxury of unstructured time. They understand that some of life's greatest pleasures—a long meal with friends, an afternoon reading in the sun, a spontaneous conversation with a neighbor—can't be scheduled.

Community and Connection: French vacation culture often involves extended family time, long meals, and deep conversations. Rest isn't just individual—it's communal, recognizing that we restore not just in solitude but in meaningful connection with others.

Reimagining What's Possible

What if we stopped viewing extended rest as indulgent and started seeing it as essential? What if we recognized that time off for true relaxation isn't time lost, but life regained?

The French have something to teach us about being human in a world that often treats us like machines. They understand that sustainable success requires sustainable rhythms, that creativity emerges from space, not pressure, and that the quality of our lives matters as much as our achievements.

For American professional women, embracing the French art of relaxation isn't about abandoning ambition—it's about sustainable ambition. It's about recognizing that we can be excellent at our work and excellent at our lives, but perhaps not simultaneously and certainly not without rest.

The Revolution of Rest

Perhaps the most radical act a professional woman can take in America today is to truly, deeply rest. To take time that feels excessive, to resist the pull of productivity, to model for other women that our worth isn't contingent on our output.

The French have shown us another way: that a life well-lived includes substantial time for reflection, connection, and simple existence. That a break of doing nothing might be the most important thing we ever do.

The question isn't whether we can afford to take extended rest. The question is whether we can afford not to.

What if the secret to having it all isn't doing more, but being more? And what if being more requires, first and foremost, the courage to simply be?