Went to France once, and arrived early in the morning of the Feast of the Assumption.
First day tried to get together some basic things - you know, food, wine, loo roll. To discover that the entire country was closed. No shops open, no petrol, no nothing. In desperation I ended up spending the GDP of a small country to buy some stale croissants and a bottle of vin ordinaire from a campsite shop during the 20-minute window when it was open.
The interesting thing is that, apart from the Muslim populations in the cities, France is as secular a society as you could hope to find. Even the relatively-devout Bretons are as doubtful as Cardiff during a crisis of faith. And yet the French took the holiday seriously. I suspect that's because the French always take having some time off very seriously - leisure-time is almost the national religion.
Maybe we've something to learn there, as we take our Smartphones on holiday and leave out-of-office messages that make it quite clear we're almost permanently available even when in deepest Provence. Having a break is good, and improves your national cooking.
ha, as you know we were out of contact on holiday- a really good plan in many ways!
ReplyDeleteHere in Italy everyone is taking the Assumption very seriously as a holiday, although with about as much religion in it as an English Christmas - and the supermarket we just went to was open and full!
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