Garp
I asked for, and got, my requested descent from FL370 to FL330: not that the turbulence particularly mitigated but it did give me a tad more space between the yellow bars on the PFD - 1.3 g buffet limit. When the speed is varying so fast that you are going from full thrust to idle to try to stop it hitting the red, and the you can't maintain altitude and the aircraft is rolling violently, you don't want to hang around in it.
That type of motion isn't a problem for the guys at the front, strapped in and with very few loose articles on the flightdeck, but for pax and cabin crew it can be terrifying and dangerous respectively.
The sig wx chart indicated nothing: Bordeaux were warning of "turbulence" over the Pyrennees at all levels but no indication of the severity. Last night with the same northerly wind, albeit a tad stronger at FL370 the ride was occasionally choppy, no more.
The easyJet wasn't a Wimp: he was simply trying to get his aircraft out of the turbulence for safety. If the ride he was suddenly subjected to at FL390 was anything like ours at FL370 he would have had even less of a margin than us.
Following requests from half a dozen aircraft for immediate descents from 370 and 390 other aircraft following were requesting early descents before the wave hit them: if the controllers already knew that 370 and 390 were bad why did they not warn the crews and offer descents?