Surprising to me. I’m an avid reader of books and news and movie watcher and I’ve never heard this phrase once. I also took 3 years of French, went to a 4 year college and I’ve reviewed lists of foreign phrases commonly used in English with my kids, all while somehow dodging this phrase for ~40 years!

It’s as common as je ne sais quoi or deja vu or ennui.

This one’s on you. Here’s a helpful list: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_French_expressio...

It's definitely not as common as deja vu.

I’ve heard those other ones a ton of times.

Well, I’m 50 and I’ve heard it before. Maybe you just need to live for 10 more years ;-)

https://www.ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=Joie+de+vivr...

Or maybe I needed to be born 10 years earlier :)