The Sex Life of the French

Original title: La Vie sexuelle en France

Publication Date:

September 2018

Pages:

288

Original language and publisher

Territories Handled

Worldwide excl. French

Genre

Society

The Sex Life of the French

Original title: La Vie sexuelle en France

  •  2 Seas Represents: World Excl. French rights

ESSAY | SOCIETY

“It reads like a novel. […] It could be the modern novel of a woman with a man, of a man with a man, or of a woman with another woman.” — François Bunel, La Grande Librairie (France 5)

What are French people getting up to in bed?

Janine Mossuz-Lavau has been investigating this field for a year in order to find out the truth. Through long hours of interviews, she has collected testimonials from men and women, young and old, from all walks of life and from all sexual orientations. Childhood experiences, first times, dating sites, sodomy, polygamy: she’s heard it all. Mossuz-Lavau explores the parts of people’s lives that are usually kept private, making pillow talk audible. All taboos are gone. Except one: those couples who do not make love anymore.

Through these experiences, Janine Mossuz-Lavau strips away preconceptions and gives us an unprecedented, realistic investigation on sexuality and love in France.

Janine Mossuz-Lavau is CNRS emeritus research director at CEVIPOF (the centre for political research at Sciences Po). Political specialist and sociologist, she has focused her work on sexuality for many years. She directed the Dictionnaire de la sexualité for Robert Laffort and was a member of the observatory for gender parity from 1999 to 2005. She now edits the Gender collection at Presses de Sciences Po. She has written several books and directed documentaries.