Summer Holidays

Before I came to France, I understood that summer holidays were sacrosanct in France (and indeed, most of Western continental Europe). I did not understand what this meant until recently, when I tried to make reservations for August 1 at several restaurants. I was told that were closed until September.

The other day, I looked up the hours of a store I intended to visit. This (approximately) were the hours:

OPEN

Tuesday - Saturday

10:00 - 12:00

14:00 - 17:30

CLOSED

Sundays, July

In fact, I woke up one random weekday morning in June to find that the boulanger across the street was closed. It hasn't been open since, although it's almost August, and there's no sign of when they might be open again.

French Public Service

I called the French electricity service today to fix the name on my account. (They incorrectly recorded no less than my sex, the spelling of my name, and the order of my first and last names.) I was greeted with the following automated message in French:

Thank you for calling ____. If you have your account number, please enter it now. If you do not have your account number, please press the pound sign so that you pause this message while you look for your account number.

I decided to hang up and call back later, which was probably their goal all along.