This is a man's world

From 1:24:06 to 1:25:30 in Christian Carion's The Girl from Paris we see Adrien talking Sandrine down because she said she wants to take a break from the farm. Adrien immediately goes into a defense mode and tells her, "This is not a woman's job ... it requires courage, muscular strength, constancy ... women change their minds like they change their clothes." Instead of sympathizing with her and realizing that she might be a little tired or needs to visit her mom or has genuine reasons to take a vacation, he starts to belittle her and say that he should have never sold the farm to her because she does not deserve it. Adrien failed to acknowledge any of the good that Sandrine had done on his farm, and instead chose to be childish and try to hurt her because his own feelings would be hurt with her departure.

I also think it's interesting to note that Adrien, along with many other older individuals in the society, are not only struggling with Sandrine as an independent woman running a farm on her own, but instead are having problems accepting change of any sort. Change to them is such a foreign concept that they talk down any and everyone who tries to do something different. We see Adrien's frustration and disappointment in Sandrine updating the hotel. He can't seem to focus when working in his garden as she and her crew hammer away at the existing building and he constantly complains to Jean when she starts having guests like the school children. When exclaims, "You should see what she does with the rasberries", you would think that she stepped on them or neglected them.

1. The Girl from Paris/Une Hirondelle ne fait pas le printemps (dir. Christian Carion, 2001)