Rough Translation: French Lunch

For more than a century in France, the lunch hour has remained sacred. Workers all over the country spilled into sidewalk cafes and office canteens to settle in for a break that can last up to ninety minutes. Strangers shared hors d'oeuvres, colleagues caught up and they tried to talk about anything except work. Then, in 2021, France suspended the law that forbids eating lunch at work. NPR's Rough Translation talks to an American teacher relieved to see it go and a French historian determined to bring it back.