Like most Parisians, I decided to take the summer off. Yes. Because somehow shops, cafés, restaurants, small-scale commercial businesses of all kinds can somehow afford to close down for the congés annuel every August. The previous post on the subject of extortion in Parisien brasseries and bars is perhaps what pays for an August of shut shutters.
People should take plenty of time off and go on holiday, don't get me wrong. In fact I think people on the whole work for too many hours in their week, and would be healthier and certainly happier if they worked less. The 35-40 hour week is the fault of employers and the industrial revolution, not the average person, and this is for another discussion. However, why all leave at the same time?
Paris is, after all, the most visited city on Earth. Perhaps there may be some café and bar owners and holiday makers who could mutually benefit from these places staying open in high season? We all know that weather-wise in Europe in recent years, we are no more guaranteed good weather in August than we are in May. Maybe the stubbornness displayed in reverence to this month just means the Parisiens have got their priorities right.
Judging by the signs in their windows, the all-important local pâtisserie has to apply to the council to close for refurbishments or similar, but other places just close down without warning, rather than their owners putting someone else in charge in their absence.
The slogan for the city paper, Le Parisien, during August translates 'The only Parisien you can rely on this summer' and perhaps it's true; but newspaper can't feed or water me (for water read wine), or provide me with the unnecessary luxuries WHICH I DEMAND.
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