French Seasons

My movers have come and gone, and the packing and loading went very well. This end of my little street was very crowded with moving trucks for the past two days, however: according to my building superintendent, the residents of six apartments (out of about 60 total in the building) were moving out this week! I guess we were all trying to beat the rush and higher cost of moving once summer vacation has started.

This got me thinking about the seasons of life in France, which generally revolve around the school year and vacation.

In order to give children regular breaks from their intensive studies, the French school year is broken up into cycles of roughly six weeks of classes, then two weeks off, six weeks of class, two weeks off, and so on, with two months off in the summer. The school vacations are Toussaint (All Saints' Day; time off in late October or early November), Christmas, winter break (late February), "Easter" (in April, so when Easter falls in March, the vacation and the holiday don't coincide!), and summer ("les grandes vacances").

This system may be good for the children, but it can be complicated for parents who have to find extended childcare at regular intervals throughout the year. Many parents end up taking at least a week off at each of the school vacation periods (the 35-hour workweek, which many companies have implemented by giving comp days off rather than actually shortening working hours, has facilitated this practice).

In addition, the French national school system divides the country into three zones, and all the public schools in that zone have an identical calendar. Vacation periods among the zones are staggered but usually overlap by at least a week. This means that in any given city, almost all the children and many of their parents are all on vacation at the same time. Which means that a lot of small "mom and pop" shops will also be closed, businesses slow down, etc.

So while it's not true that the entire country goes on vacation at the same time (not even in August, as legend would have it), the regular vacation periods are noticeable and affect everyone to some extent. I'm single with no kids, but the above link to the French school calendar is one that I've had bookmarked for a few years, because so many things in my own life are affected by the school vacations. For example, my regular committee meetings at church were often rescheduled to accommodate school holidays.

Part of me finds these mass departures a bit lemming-like. So many people leave for their "big" summer vacation on either July 1 or August 1 that those days are always "red" level traffic days nationwide, and all the news programs remind people to bring enough water, etc. in the cars, since they'll most likely be sitting motionless on the highways for hours! Why not just leave on August 2? And some people do that, but they generally seem to talk about it like it's some big radical idea. Single people vaunt the fact that they can go on vacation in June, when it's cheaper. Oh, the craziness!

But part of me also thinks that it's nice to have these noticeable seasons and rhythms to life. It's ironic: ever since I left the Midwest, I've claimed to miss having real changes of seasons, the ebb and flow from a hot, sunny summer, to a cold, snowy winter. Yet living in France, where both summer and winter are much milder, the seasons seem to affect my life in more ways: winter is time for soups and scarves (all the time, even indoors), and summer is time for salads and light cotton skirts (no need to carry a sweater in case of excessive air-conditioning!) and fewer people on the metro.

The American writer of Parler Paris newsletters (which I read more out of morbid fascination than anything else) often marvels that so many small businesses and restaurants in Paris simply close down for vacations, rather than the owners finding a way to keep them open and earning money. I understand her logic, but after six years here, I also understand why many French would be disdainful of this "commercial" attitude. What's the use of earning a better living if it doesn't give you a better life?

I'm looking forward to the change of Minnesota seasons, but I hope I'll be able to hold onto some of the pace of French seasons. Tonight I plan to spend some time wandering around listening to street musicians playing everywhere for the Fête de la Musique, celebrating the beginning of summer and the longest day of the year, when it will stay light until about 11 pm.