Holidays in France
All employees have five weeks' holiday and in certain public administrations, six weeks or more. Although busy bosses of small companies are hard put to find the time to take a holiday, and about a third of all families in France cannot afford to go away on holiday, more and more people go away several times a year. The advent of the reduced working week to 35 hours means that long weekends are possible and extra holiday time can be built up, but not carried forward into the next holiday year, if employees work more than 35 hours in the week.
The long school summer holidays (les grandes vacances) are the signal for an abrupt run down in economic activity with factories closing for up to one month and service industries (apart from tourist sectors) working with skeleton staff. Voluntarily staffed associations and clubs, particularly those run by municipalities, close down when the activities and services they offer would in fact be most appreciated by local residents. A la rentrée! (in September, the start of the new school year) is the general cry from the beginning of July for consideration of new business propositions.
Politicians are interviewed for their holiday plans. TV newscasters are replaced by their junior colleagues and the former come back beautifully bronzed. The holidays are news.
Where and When to go
Working or retired? Short holidays, or one or two weeks? Possibilities and prices vary tremendously.
If you are retired or can choose your holiday periods, skiing is more attractive outside school holidays. If you want guaranteed warm weather and swimming, at off-season prices and without the crowds, head to the Mediterranean in June or the first half of September. If you're looking for international hotels, traffic jams and sophisticated night life head for the Côte d'Azur almost any time of the year. If you're looking for expanses of glorious sandy beaches, the Landes beaches on the Atlantic coast - the largest in Europe - are coming back into favour after two years of bad publicity following shipping oil spills. The Alps offer beautiful uncrowded areas for mountain walks with warm weather from June onwards. But don't go after mid-August when the weather is unsettled. If the weather is not a priority, Britanny remains proudly regional with its traditional folklore, and has spectacular indented coastlines and magnificent seascapes.
If you do have to drive long distances in the peak holiday periods arm yourself with a current example of the Bison Futé national road map which indicates in green the alternative routes which are less likely to be full of traffic. When driving look out for the green and yellow, or yellow and black ' Bis ' (alternative) route signs. Explanations and information on the maps are given in French, English and German. Try to avoid the first Saturday in August, when traffic is particularly heavy, and weekends in general throughout July and August.
Residents can enjoy extended weekend package trips at reasonable prices to major European cities from main airports; and if you always have a packed suitcase ready and are flexible in your choice of destinations the websites www.fr.lastminute.com and www.degriftour.fr continually offer reductions on flights, hotels and tour packages. Chèques parkings, applicable at many airports, reduce long-term car parking fees by about 50 per cent and can be obtained online - subject to availability - or through travel agents when booking a holiday.
