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| Photo and article Getty Images – HERE |
I always get a little frustrated looking at blogs this time of year. Bloggers in the States writing about 'Back to school' and 'the end of summer' and 'Fall's just around the corner' make me want to shout, "But it's still summer!". I happen to enjoy summer and want it to last as long as possible. Just for the record, technically summer ends September 23.
Summer is still going strong this month in France (pretty much all of the EU for that matter). This last weekend was the start of the biggest vacation month of the year. French citizens have the right to 5 weeks of paid vacation per year (all EU countries have the legal right to at least 4) and they take a big chunk of that in July or August, mainly August. Many businesses close down in August to join their employees and customers in some quality time off. I don't recommend traveling by car this time of year (as the above photo shows), traffic jams south on the A7—Autoroute du soleil—abound. And beaches along the coasts have the tendency to look like this:
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| Photo and article from Mail online – HERE |
It's a great time to visit Paris, though. The Parisians have left en masse and the city is noticeably less crowded. True, some restaurants and businesses in Paris will be closed this month, but there are more than enough others to choose from.
School starts in France the first of September, but another wave of vacationers hit about that time. Retirees and others for whom school opening is not a issue.
Vive l'été!
I wish I could head to Paris -- or the Riviera for that matter -- pronto to soak up some much needed sunshine! Talking about traffic jams, I remember it taking us 1,5 hours to drive what's usually a 10minute drive to get into Antibes a couple of summers ago. Traffic just wasn't moving and I have no idea what all these people were up to anyway. They should all have been at the beach! We'd been to St Paul de Vence (spelling?), one of the most pictoresque villages I've ever been to,so we have the right to be on the road, of course.
ReplyDeleteAnett | Tall Girl's Fashion
When we went to Paris it was in August and I do remember there were a few places closed (restaurants) that we had considered. But, we still had a lot of options. A month-long vacation sounds so, so awesome. That is some serious traffic and those beaches are packed! I know, we are all in back to school mode here in the states... the commercials on TV have even changed, at the begging of summer it was all fun, fun in the sun and now its all focused on fall and back to school. And, you're right... summer really doesn't end till September. I guess we are always ahead of ourselves here! The stores already have Christmas decor out... :I
ReplyDeleteCarrie
curlycraftymom.com
Who would want to fight that traffic?!?!? When we vacationed in France it was always the end of August into Sept. Nice w/o kids around.
ReplyDelete