The Centre of Midsummer
The Rest is Not Downhill; Only Quieter
By Richard Erickson
Paris Kiosque - September 1997 - Volume 4, Number 9
Copyright (c) 1997 Richard Erickson - used with permission
Today
marks the end of 'high summer' in France. This last weekend saw the second
and probably largest 'grande rentrée' as all who took the mid-July
to mid-August period, returned home.
Those returning to Paris will find the city somewhat empty-seeming. A
lot of smaller shops, services and cafés remain closed as they stick
to the traditional summer time-table. When summer is over, they roll up
their window shutters and resume business.
For larger concerns, both July and August must be busy times because
they have to get prepared for the 'rentrée,' the big return to
normal. This means having shipped the new lot of school supplies or having
put the final touches to the early fall TV commercials.
Families with younger school-age children have a special problem. Most
community and recreation centres in the Ile-de-France region which had
programs in July after school was finished, are closed in August. This is
my case and my solution to it - because I can do it - is to take all of
August.
This is what I've been doing and today I look around and see many
familiar cars gone and a lot more sand between the islands of people on the
beach. It was crowded before but I was used to it like I'm used to riding
in the
métro at rush-hour,
and now it seems a little lonely - as if the leaves are going to turn brown
and fall at any moment.
A small shop in Deauville; more usual of Trouville.
Since a lot of these 'leaves' are palm fronds, I don't really expect it
to happen in the next two weeks, but the feeling is still there.
I have been having European holidays now for a long time and it is not
easy to remember what it used to be like with the old one or two weeks. As
a kid, summer vacations were long; eight to ten weeks, but the 'holiday'
part was usually fairly short.
As it was in a seaside town, when I was an older kid it didn't matter if
there was any 'holiday' with the parents, because all the essential things
were right there - except for the temporary disappearance of friends who
couldn't get out of 'going on holiday.'
In Europe, the vast mass of people get four, five or six weeks off every
year. In France, this translates into perhaps having a holiday in the
mountains in February and another one elsewhere around Easter.
Whole factories and whole industries close for a month, usually in
August. This means they stop production and the regular
workers go away; but it
also means that the plant can be rebuilt, repaired or improved during this
time, so there must be a lot of people working on this who get some other
time off.
The pleasure port in Deauville, with Trouville in the background.
So the factories are not just sitting there idle. If the renovation
wasn't done this way, it would have to be done during regular production
and would probably cost more as everybody would have to adjust to
work-arounds and uncalculated down-time.
But if you run a corner grocery store or a magazine like Metropole, you
can just pull down the shutters and bug off.
Not quite. I have to write this first. I have to fake 'being here' while
I am still back there, and still have to pack as soon as I get this
finished.
When you read this, I expect to 'be here,' on holidays. Unless, of
course, you are 'here' too and not reading this at all.
Now I lost my place and can't figure out where I am. On top of it, there
are two places this year and I moved from one to the other on Saturday, but
at this moment in time, wherever I am, I can't figure it out.
It means I am supposed to 'be on holidays' I think.
Richard Erickson, living in Paris for the last twenty years, has been putting
Paris online as long as anyone. More of his writings can be found in
Metropole Paris
where this article first appeared.
He can be contacted via
erickso@world-net.sct.fr.
