Apr 29 2008
It’s Holiday Time Again
May - the time that most of France seems to shut down for the various holidays that they have. The French have three public holidays in May - 1st May which is the ‘Fête du Travail’ (labour day), 8th May which is ‘Victoire 1945′ - the day World War 2 ended and finally 12 May ‘Lundi de Pentecôte’ - Pentecost. The day of the week the holiday falls on is a holiday, whether it falls on a weekend or not, so if 1st May or 8 May are a weekend, then they don’t get the day off during the week.
However, many French take the opportunity to ‘faire le pont’, which means they bridge to the weekend if the holiday falls on a Tuesday or a Thursday. Two of this years’ holidays are on Thursdays, so no doubt most French won’t work on 1st or 2nd May. To add to their holidays even more, the 8th May holiday will no doubt turn into 5 days as they’ll take off 8 & 9 May, plus 12 May. Oh, to be in France in May!!
So, not only do the French do very well with public holidays, they are also the world leaders in the number of days holiday they have per year, according to the Daily Telegraph - 37 on average in total!
[...] or another. Many workers take long weekends, especially when a public holiday falls on a week day (which I’ve mentioned in a previous post) which is a problem for many [...]