Les aventures de la vie française: August in France

"juillet:" July
"août:" August
"congés:" time-off
"vacances:" vacation

France is an interesting place to be in during the month of August, and by "interesting" I mean slightly boring and very quiet. Unlike us perhaps work-a-holic Americans, the French take their vacation time very seriously. One might observe that the French may have a better "work-life" balance as opposed to Americans, a full-time work week being capped at 35 hours and a 5-week vacation allowance per year. On the other hand, they pay a lot of taxes for this. (Socialism?). Anywho, August is nationally recognized as holiday time in France, where almost everybody takes all or part of their 5 week vacation time all at once. While great for everyone taking vacation, not so great for the American interns who do not get to take an August holiday (that's me!).

This past week there were 5 interns and my boss in the office. It was a bit quiet. Also, our factory closes for all of August therefore there is no production during this month. This is obviously planned for in advance, as it happens every year. While I do not mind so much working in the quiet office, it does bode problems for me if I need to ask someone a question (and they are off on the beach somewhere!).

The really annoying part about staying in France in August is that everything else closes for vacation. Normally, in the U.S., if you work in a retail store for example, the employees will stagger their time off so that there is always someone available to work. Here, not so much. Stores, bars, restaurants just plain close for the month of August. Even my boulangerie (bakery) is closed for a whole month! I cannot get the good bread! You'd think that being an American and rarely eating baguettes at home would not affect me, however, after being here so long I have picked up the French habit of bread being a necessity and now it is TORTURE not to have it. We can buy some cheap bread from the supermarket but its just not the SAME!