Welcome back to The Velvet Runway, where we are exploring Why September Is the New January: The French Art of La Rentrée.
Everyone talks about January as though it is the great moment for a reset. New year, new you. A new version of ourselves, preferably healthier, more organised and considerably more productive than the one who made it through December.
But to me, January has always felt like the worst possible time to begin again.
It’s cold and dark, and after Christmas many of us are recovering financially and emotionally, not to mention physically from the festive season. The idea that we should immediately become healthier, more organised, more productive and somehow transform our lives has always felt rather demanding.
For me, September is different.
September is the real January.
Perhaps it is because summer gives us something January rarely does: space.
There are slower mornings, longer lunches, time outside, days away from our usual routines and, sometimes, the luxury of having nowhere in particular to be. Even if we haven’t travelled, summer can create a small distance from ordinary life — enough to notice what we enjoy, what we miss and what we don’t miss at all.
Then comes September.
Not quite summer, not quite autumn. The holidays begin to recede, familiar places reopen and there is a natural desire to find our rhythm again.
Perhaps that’s why September feels like such a natural moment to pause and think about how we want to live. Not necessarily what we want to achieve, or which goals we need to add to the list, but how we want our days to feel — and which parts of summer we would like to carry with us into the next season.
To return slowly, keeping only the best.
In France, there is a word for this moment: la rentrée.
What La Rentrée Really Means
Literally, it means “the return” — the moment when people come back after the long French summer break and everyday life begins again: children go back to school, colleagues return to work, businesses reopen and cities gradually regain their familiar rhythm.
But the word carries a cultural significance that goes beyond simply going back to work.
After the quieter weeks of les grandes vacances, September brings a return to ordinary pleasures: the café around the corner, the weekly market, the boulangerie, dinner with friends, the familiar walk home. The long, languid days of August begin to give way to cooler mornings, earlier evenings and the reassuring return of familiar routines.
There is also la rentrée littéraire, the annual arrival of new books and the accompanying conversations, reviews and literary prizes. Theatres, concert halls, galleries and cultural programmes begin their new seasons too.
So September in France is not simply about getting back to work. It is also a return to ideas, culture, people and everyday life.
And perhaps that is what makes la rentrée such an interesting way of thinking about September.
It isn’t necessarily about starting again.
It is about returning.
Summer isn’t something to recover from. It’s something to carry forward.
You can explore more articles about French lifestyle in the Art of French Living and you may also want to read our guide to Where the French Really Go on Holiday.
Returning to Everyday Life
Modern life often encourages us to think of returning from holiday as a problem to solve. There are emails to answer, laundry to wash, appointments to make and a calendar to refill. We arrive home from time away and immediately start trying to catch up, as though the purpose of returning is to erase everything that happened while we were away. We often even define the return from holidays as “back to the grind“.
But what if there is another way? Perhaps returning home can be a process rather than an event, and a gradual and selective return to the things we value.
What Do We Want to Bring Back?
Summer has a way of revealing things.
Perhaps we discovered that we loved walking before breakfast, reading in the afternoon, eating outside or having long conversations that weren’t squeezed between appointments.
Perhaps we remembered how good it feels to have an evening with nothing planned, or simply to have more time to notice what is around us.
These small discoveries can be surprisingly useful.
Because we don’t necessarily need to recreate our summer when we return home. We can ask a simpler question:
What would I like to bring back with me?
Maybe it is a ritual rather than a holiday.
Coffee at the same café on Saturday morning, flowers on the kitchen table, a leisurely breakfast, a proper lunch rather than something eaten at the desk, an evening walk, reading a few pages before bed or cooking something slowly on a Sunday.
None of these things is particularly extraordinary.
And that is precisely the point.
A beautiful life is not necessarily built from extraordinary experiences. Often, it is built from ordinary experiences that we learn to notice.
For me, this is one of the pleasures of returning to places I know and love. A favourite café, a familiar market, a walk I’ve taken many times before. The pleasure isn’t in discovering something new; it is in noticing something familiar again.
Perhaps September is an invitation to bring a little of that feeling into everyday life.
And What Can We Leave Behind?
But bringing things back is only half of the story.
Summer can also reveal what we don’t want to return to.
The commitment we didn’t miss, the appointment we realised wasn’t necessary, the habit of checking our phones constantly and the tendency to fill every empty space in the calendar.
Sometimes it is only when we step away from our usual routine that we realise how full it has become.
Perhaps that is one of the most useful things about a September reset.
We don’t have to return to exactly the life we left behind. We can choose.
- What did I miss?
- What did I not miss?
- What deserves a place in my autumn — and what doesn’t?
I think we sometimes confuse a full calendar with a full life. They aren’t the same thing.
A reset doesn’t necessarily require adding something new. Sometimes it means making room for what is already important.
That might mean leaving an evening empty, saying no to something that no longer matters or spending Saturday morning at the market rather than rushing from one commitment to another.
Not everything needs to come back simply because summer is over.
A Different Kind of September Reset
One of the pleasures of September in France is the way the season announces itself gradually.
There is no great declaration that autumn has arrived. The signs are simply there.
At the market, summer produce begins to mingle with the first flavours of autumn. Figs, grapes and late-season tomatoes sit alongside apples, pears and mushrooms. The countryside begins to change and vineyards move towards the vendanges, the grape harvest. The light becomes softer, mornings feel cooler and evenings begin to acquire a different quality.
Summer isn’t over. It simply changes shape.
Nothing changes overnight. Life simply shifts.
So perhaps September doesn’t need another list of resolutions. Perhaps it simply calls for a shift in perspective — and three simple questions:
- What do I want more of in my everyday life?
- What am I happy to leave behind?
- What do I want to carry from summer into autumn?
For me, that feels more meaningful than deciding what I need to achieve before Christmas.
Because the most useful kind of reset isn’t necessarily about becoming more productive. It is about becoming more deliberate.
And perhaps that is the quiet wisdom of la rentrée. We don’t need to begin again by becoming someone new.
We can begin again by returning to what matters.
Returning, Not Reinventing
And this is perhaps the part of la rentrée that I like most: it is a return, rather than a reinvention.
We are not required to become someone new simply because September has arrived.
Instead, we can return with a little more information about ourselves.
The point isn’t to recreate summer. It is to preserve the way summer made us feel.
Perhaps that is what a slow return really means. Not returning to exactly the life you had before, but bringing something of the life you enjoyed while you were away into the life you are returning to.
The long evenings may disappear. The sea may be several hundred miles away. The sandals will eventually give way to boots and the outdoor lunches will become fewer.
But the feeling doesn’t have to disappear with them.
We can carry something forward. A little more spaciousness, a little more curiosity, a little more attention to ordinary pleasures — perhaps even a little less urgency.
You are not necessarily starting over. You are returning to yourself — with a little more information about the life you want to live.
And that is a very different thing.
Why September Is the New January : The Art of a Slow Return
September has always been described as the end of something: the end of summer, the end of the holidays, the return to reality.
But perhaps it can be something else.
A beginning, certainly — but a quieter one, just like la rentrée in France.
We don’t need to begin again by becoming someone new. We can begin again by returning to what matters.
Not everything. Just the best.
Every season asks something different of us. Summer invites us to wander. Autumn invites us to return.
Perhaps that is the quiet beauty of returning. Sometimes the most meaningful journeys are not the ones that take us somewhere new, but the ones that help us come home to ourselves.
So this September, perhaps don’t ask yourself what you need to achieve. Ask yourself what you want to return to. And then return slowly.
That might just be the most elegant reset of all.
Looking for more inspiration for travelling through France? Explore our Aix-en-Provence itinerary, our French Riviera itinerary, our Biarritz itinerary and our French Travel collection, where you’ll find destination guides, hotel reviews and slow travel inspiration from Provence, Paris, the Atlantic Coast and beyond. You can also discover more about French traditions and culture in our guide to the Art of French Living.
And if this slower approach to a September reset speaks to you, I’ve gathered a few timeless pieces inspired by these quieter corners of France below.
The September Edit: Bringing the French Summer Feeling Home
This month’s edit celebrates the quiet pleasures of autumn and the return to everyday life.
Think soft knitwear, timeless accessories, comforting fragrances and a few beautiful pieces designed to make the new season feel both elegant and effortless.
Because sometimes it isn’t about buying more—it is about choosing well
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