Welcome to the fourth installment of my monthly cultural differences series! I've missed two months (oops) with no real excuse other than that I've had the kids 24/7 all summer and not much time to blog.It's August. We're in France. which means...
If you want bread, you have to walk the extra mile to a bakery that's open. The market is half the size it usually is. Don't try to find a doctor or a dentist. But if you want to park your car in the streets, don't worry about not having enough change - it's free this month. The city is deserted, everyone is at the beach.
When we just moved here we went on vacation in September and were a bit surprised that we only met retired people. Turns out that even people with small children that aren't tied to a school schedule yet will be on vacation in August because daycare centers are closed for the entire month and many sitters will be away too (our sitter, who is Portuguese, spends the entire month in Portugal - and the first Saturday of her vacation in a traffic jam on the high way).
Of course, historically, this is probably due to harvest time - everyone had to go harvest the crops in August so everything else had to shut down. But if I ask friends or colleagues why the entire country still goes en masse on vacation in August, they look at me as if I'm crazy, say 'well, it's always been this way / we don't know any better' or 'well, the industry closes (but if I ask why they don't have an answer to it!), so I have less work in August, so I might as well take my vacation then). School is out in the entire country from the first Saturday in July until the first Tuesday in September (for other school holidays the country is divided into three zones to try to avoid overly crowded high ways and resorts - or to give the tourist industry a longer period of higher income, however you want to look at it), but the family vacation is always in August - kids of working parents will go to their grandparents or summer camp in July.
The first Saturday in August is called "black Saturday" on traffic reports. It means everyone is standing still on the highways going south. (This year we thought we could go south the Friday before to celebrate my dad's birthday - it took us 6 hours instead of 3.5 - and that day was only classed as "orange").
Since we have kids and are more or less tied to the sitter's vacation schedule, we have been taking vacations in August, but still trying to avoid the huge crowds (so you won't find us at the Mediterranean beach then). This year we have a bit of a hap-snap vacation but will be going to the mountains next week, when the rest of the country is going back home to stock up on school supplies for "la rentrée des classes" (which will be the topic of my next Cultural Differences installment).
Is there a specific summer period when most of the people in your country take vacation or is it more spread out? Any other specifics to summer vacation time you know of?
4 comments:
People seem to incorporate holidays into their travel schedules to get extra time off here. I'm going to be traveling over the next holiday weekend, so that will be annoying. I think the main travel times in the US are Thanksgiving weekend, sometime around Christmas, Spring Break (which varies a little but is usually around Easter), and then Memorial Day weekend (end of May), 4th of July, or Labor Day (1st Monday in September - after which many kids return to school).
For some reason, school has been starting in mid-August for more and more schools. I'm not sure what the rationale is, but I think it's terrible to be in school during the hottest part of summer. That's when you should be at the pool! But all the pools are closed because their summer staff has gone back to college or high school.
Italy is totally the same. Prices in August are through the roof, "black weekend" of going places the first of the month of August and another (or two) black weekend the third and last one in August. Dreadful. Industry closing the middle two weeks if not the whole month. University also closes in August. I thought one reason was also energy saving as thoe heat can be obsene and if you have no air con like many places a couple of decades ago, working was just impossible. Ireland not so much! Schools are off in June (secondary) and July (primary) till September so you can really go whenever and given that the Irish weather is unpredictable you just chance it (if you stay) or probably go some other time than August if you go abroad in the hope that your August at home will be merciful. As I often go to Italy in the summer, I avoid August like the plague unless like this year it'll the end of the month! Love love love your cultural difference posts!
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Last year we spent the summer in Italy, and travelled on the "black weekend." Luckily no problems, but like you found it amusing that they all went on holiday in August, and all went back to work at the end of August/beginning of September. We travelled south as the rest of Italy returned north, and we sailed along, amazed at the 3-4 lane northbound highways creeping along bumper-to-bumper. Puglia in September was almost deserted, though still lovely and warm and sunny. Weird.
Here in New Zealand, Christmas coincides of course with summer, so there are a few dates to avoid driving - Christmas Eve if it is a work day, or the last Friday/Saturday before Christmas if it's on a weekend or the next Monday/Tuesday. And the return to work is usually January 2nd, which is to be avoided too, though not excessively bad, as many people take another week, two or even three off, as school doesn't start again till February, and university doesn't start till March. Many people without school children will wait till February to take their holidays, when the weather is often at its best.
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