No where for me to spend my Euros!
Shop notice saying they're closed from 25th July to 26th August
This is a common occurrence in France unless you live in an area popular with tourists such as the Cote d’Azur, but for us mortels that are not lucky enough to live in a place so desirable that everyone else wants to come and visit, we are stuck with the majority of shops being closed!
It’s true that the streets of Lyon are pretty much deserted at the moment, but wandering aimlessly to my Osteo appointment this morning I really thought it was a Sunday. I walked down a whole street, 1.2 kilometres and every single shop was closed! This was in a middle class neighbourhood and there were plenty of people buzzing around in the nearby market so surely proof that not everyone had gone on holiday?
I do not know why shops here and elsewhere in France shut down for a whole month and as a business owner I feel that it is ludicrous. I really wish I could either join in or that the shops would open again!
The French economy is so vibrant, the shopkeepers are run off their feet with customers throwing stacks of money at them, so they really do need a good rest and somewhere to spend all their well-deserved gains.
obviously
For what it’s worth, it’s common on the Cote d’Azur, too. Not so much in the shops that cater particularly to tourists, but there’s only so many bags that say “Nice” on them that I can buy… (I do actually own one. Don’t judge.)
I quite like the idea, to be honest – I think for all its many problems, there’s something to be said for a socio-cultural insistence that life-outside-of-work has value, rather than the lip service that’s paid to the idea of work/life balance back in the UK. It makes the country a nicer place to be, even if it is a bit of a lottery as to what shops are going to be open when… (Ask me after I’ve been trying to buy lunch in the pouring rain from a closed supermarket and you’ll get a different answer, though. The sun has clearly mellowed me.)
wow, I must be a true tourist as I always see plenty of shops that are open, but now you come to mentin it, everything they sell has Nice, St Tropez or other town on it! (I have a Nice bag too
)
I too enjoy the work life balance in France and the priority people put on life outside of work. I find people more patient here for customer service (even if customer service is generally deplorable here) and I love being able to take a two hour lunch break…
What’s frustrating though is the assumption that everyone leaves and therefore it is necessary to close for a whole month – I have no-where to buy bread, meat, veggies, cheese or anything without 1) getting in a car or 2) going to Carrefour which I’m trying to avoid at the moment (their produce in our local one is awful!).
There’s also been a lot of moaning by our local commerces that they’re struggling to survive as people boycott them for the out of town supermarkets which are less expensive and can deliver! People’s habits will change whilst they’re shut so I wonder how many people take their custom back once they re-open? It can’t be that bad though otherwise they wouldn’t shut for so long surely?
Ou Piglet, how I sympathise! Here in the South of France very few shops are shut, even in ou village, one here and there just for 8 days sometimes.
However anybody needing to do administrative work, get in touch with a customer, or a client is doomed to frustration and near madness!!!
And my osteo/kiné whom I have to see every other day…got let down by his locum….so…15 days shut tight, his cabinet, and without HIM, turned me into a bent in two old criplle!
He’s back, thank God, so I can now just wait patiently until the damage done repairs itself with his help…
Hardly can walk, and legs all wobbly …”it’s normal” saith he..”.muscle waste becoz of not being able to stride each day as supposed to!!!!”…and…..”get back striding again, but not in all one go”!!! Your kidding – climbing upstairs and taking my funny little dog round the close by fake lake is already more than I can cope with and I feel about as spritely as the Cookeeen Fairy, and look 120 years old with the pain!
Don’t get happy hols either – work in July and Ausust a lot….but of course the sushine is here and the famaous “brise de Montpellier”….translate by roaring wind from time to time, but which saves us from looking like and feeling like…”rosbifs”! It gets jolly hot, and if you don’t go to the beach or you don’t have your own pool….tricky coping.
Hi Diane, Thank you for stopping by.
Thank goodness your Osteo is back! I live in fear during the summer of not being able to access my usual medical people whether it be dentist, doctor, kine, osteo, whatever… Thankfully, the only person I needed to consult rapidly was my Osteo and I was delighted that he was working
He explained that he worked throughout the summer but will not be there for a month at the end of the year… just the time when I am likely to have a ski accident!
I often go to Montpellier and near Meze for work and love the heat although I can imagine that it must be tricky if you’re working and don’t have anywhere to cool down. It gets very hot and stuffy in Lyon too but for short periods of time only so we get plenty of time to recover.
For me too, July and August are amongst my busiest months work wise. I really must not complain as I did take two weeks off last Christmas to go traveling but it’s so frustrating not being able to buy anything locally here!
I hope that you are feeling better and that you are recovering!
I hear ya, Piglet! My other half and I actually get to take advantage of this though, as my company closes for two weeks in August (and the other two weeks are a joke. you can’t call what i’m doing right now work) and all of my hubby’s clients shops are closed, so there’s nothing for him to do right now either. I used to wonder how this country stayed afloat only working 11 months a year, but then I saw how hectic and busy September is. We work enough in that one month that it makes up for August! I appreciate the idea that there is nothing better to do for an entire month than to enjoy the sunshine and do some travelling or home improvement. It’s one aspect of French culture that I’ve really taken to heart
Lucky lucky you! I wish I could join in this tradition also!
It’s true that everyone works twice as hard in September but I normally find that it isn’t until late September that people are back into the swing of things. This creates more work for me also as July and August are my busiest months so I get a back log which has to be dealt with by my French partners and then I too end up working double hard in September! Hey ho, such is life, I will have to find something else to do if I want August off!
My fave aspect of French culture is the two hour lunch break – whilst I rarely take a full two hours, I will always take an hour now which is fantastic and much better than my 5 minute sandwich break from my days in the UK!
Enjoy the summer!
It’s their god-given right to close during August.
Hi Piglet
I haven’t noticed much in the way of closed up shops here. At work, suppliers seem to be available and while some people are on holiday, there is always someone holding the fort.
I suppose it’s the small shopkeepers who can’t afford to employ someone to keep the shop open who have to close completely. I can understand that, buy why go away for an entire month!
I’m not sure I’ve ever noticed small shops in the UK closing for that length of time either. They’d be afraid that customers would take their custom elsewhere and not come back. Customers are a fickle bunch. I know I am
You’re lucky then, trying to buy anything here in Lyon is proving difficult at the moment unless it comes from a chain store or supermarket
I completely agree with you – why a whole month?
I was talking to the cashier in a Petit Casino last week and they explained that they have a replacement system – the owners of the Petit Casino go away for a holiday and the Casino group sends in a replacement couple to run the shop whilst the owners are away! A great system as it keeps business ticking over and fickle customers coming back!
Our buthcer here decided to close the butchery shop from 15th August ( St Mary’s Day and huuuge Romanian holyday ) till 1st of September, because everybody is on vacation in august and it costs more to run the shop with few customers… So I have to wait untill 1st of september to get decent veal … They hypermarkets in the outskirts of my town are open, though, but the meat quality is significantly lower…. Now, if they do this in Romania, where living standards are so much below the line compared to France, I guess the reason for doing this is that they have enough money to do it and still live quite well. I am running my own business and I let all my employees free during August, still, I work. If I get a good contract, I just get into my car and I run to the client no matter what day/month of the year is… So, I work but my secretary is free for exactly 31 days and gets payed just like she has been working full time …
This is what I call social un – justice ! 
))
Social injustice indeed!
I have made a point of taking time off this month for me to relax and unwind, even if I can’t shut down the whole month I’ve managed to shut down for a few days at a time. A lot of my customers don’t understand but it’s so important for the work life balance. I know I have lost business from doing this but I will work harder when I’m at work to make up for it.
I could never shut for a whole month though, it would be busines suicide!
Your secretary is lucky having a whole month off
I wonder if she gets bored?
15th August is a special day here in France too.
I don’t really care for meat unless it is of good quality, so if I couldn’t buy good meat I would rather go vegetarian for a month than eat supermarket meat! The only stuff I’ll buy in supermarket now is Charal beefburgers and organic freerange chicken. I’ve heard too many horror stories to buy anything else
I have always suspected that the ritual moaning about how difficult life is for the small shopkeeper is just camouflage.
I observe their houses, their cars and…their holidays and suspect that they are actually doing quite well.
hah! my thoughts exactly! They take too much cash to put it all through the books… I’ve often calculated the cost of running a shop, stock, staff, state charges etc and find it hard to make ends meet in my head…
I agree with fly in the web!!!
Round here too! Super homes, supers cars…and very very nice holidays….
One of my children married “la fille de commercants”….wowwwwwwwww
Breath taking house on the Loire, fantastique designer furniture et doodahs, fabulous cars, hols several times a year and wowww, what destinations, and they would feal belittled not to wear Gucci or Armani!
However…….their favourite “reading” is……Voici & Gala
and their intellectuel heros are David Guetta and Dolcé é Gabanna…
Can’t have everything!!!!
maybe we all should have become a shop owner in France? I would like to be able to consider anything less than Gucci or Armani as inferior LOL!
Don’t they become a bit blasé after a while though?
When I was finishing the renovations for my house towards the end of July 2006 the electrician had one last simple thing to do before calling in EDF to inspect the installation and connect me. He said ‘Oh, I’ll come back in September and finish that.’ My reply was such that he somehow managed to get everything finished by the end of that day, and EDF connected me two days later! Il faut pas jouer avec une anglaise enragée!
ohhh, I would love to know what you said to him! Well done though, whatever you said it did the job!
Having been a former business owner myself, I am empathetic to small businesses closing for a while. Although, a whole month seems a little long to me!
I have decided that my blog is closed for the vacances, too, lol. I guess I needed more of a break than I thought!
I hope that the quieter pace has settled well with you. Just think, in another couple of weeks, things will be buzzing with the rentrée once again.
Be well, Piglet, and see you again in the bloghood, soon.
me too, I’m only complaining as I’m jealous! Oh the green eyed monster!
I hope you’re enjoying your break and are finding lots of interesting things to write about, I bet your next post will be the mother of all monster posts ever written? I think I’ll need a whole bottle of wine, not just a glass hey?
Take care!
Try Sweden – nothing is happening there during July AND August. My friend has eight weeks vacation per year. (!)
woooahhhh, 8 weeks vacation!??!
[...] Piglet in France discovers that France is Closed – pour les [...]
Ah Piglet, I feel your pain. I cannot, in my little head, figure out how this is done without an excruciating economic hit! I will continue to ask questions. However, I’m with you on the 2 hour lunches. The willingness to take time like that is one of the reasons I live here….also one of the things that drives me mad! Piglet, tell me, what is it you do for a living?
I feel the urge to shop and spend money today. Hang on wait! I’ll have to see what shops are open first! Maybe I’ll quiz the one’s that are on how they manage to survive whilst they’re closed for most of the summer…
Long mealtimes is one of my fave things about France and something that I love to make the most of! Will have to be careful now with the not smoking lark, do not want waistline to expand anymore!
Private Finance, mightily interesting… I also write, but only for fun