America looks forward, unapologetically. There is no long past to contemplate (though the past that exists is rich). The past imported from overseas is often the past one sought to escape. The present may be scant. By contrast, the future is so much richer than the past. There is also more of it.
The American focus on future is also due to the ethos of novelty seeking. The country is comprised of immigrants, who have had driven by novelty tolerance, if not seeking. Competitive markets promote novelty. One must distinguish oneself from others by innovating or perish. The American forward looking tendency is also a way to cultivate social cohesion. Each has his own past. The future is the same for all (possibly, also for the non-yet-Americans).
French culture preserves and promises continuity (as does much of European culture). French culture cherishes beauty, which ages slowly, and joie de vivre, which ages not. Frenchness, by birth or imitation, is a club of sophisticates, one among many. One believes one shares in something rich even if one owns nothing. One contributes simply by being complicit in the act of beauty.
In America, perhaps because tastes are disparate, and new Americans arrive with well-formed tastes, art is often regarded as elitist and beauty as luxury. Few bond over beauty, except natural beauty, whose language is universal. Similarly, Americans do not bond over humour, which excludes those who are not fluent in the shared culture---the late arrivals, the disadvantaged, or those who refuse to recognise the shared culture and prefer to invent a culture of their own.
"Chez Mamou" recognises that one need not derive all one's life's pleasure from sugar. So Paul's pastries are designed to complement other pleasures: the morning breeze, the perfect music, the conversations in quiet voices. In Paris, of the Southwest.
