Fête du travail

n. – Labor Day holiday

With only a few exceptions, the French like to adhere to dates vs. days for their numerous holidays. In the US, Labor Day, Memorial Day, even Presidents’ Day, Martin Luther King Day and Columbus Day always fall on a Monday. This ensures the day of celebration can actually be celebrated with a day off work.

It’s ironic however that in a country where vacation is so sacrosanct, the French version of Labor Day always falls on May 1 no matter what. So inevitably there will be two years in a row when it falls on Saturday and then Sunday resulting in no impact on the work week whatsoever.

The French have so many vacations, they have to divide the country into zones so it doesn’t all but shut down. Soon after the Christmas holidays are the vacances in February followed by the vacances in April, followed by Easter. Even the television shows and newspapers go on holiday. Le Figaro, the daily newspaper that comes with magazine supplements on Saturday simply re-prints Friday’s edition on Saturday to run with the magazines over Easter weekend. Sometimes, the whole newsstand will go on holiday so then it doesn’t really matter.

One newsstand comes to mind in the neighborhood, whose hours at best are questionable. Once when I asked how late they stayed open, the owner responded “Dix-neuf heure, dix-neuf trente,” 7:00, 7:30. I asked again to clarify because there is a gaping half hour difference between the two to which she begrudgingly agreed to 7:30, but I understood that if things were quiet, those doors would be closing up much closer to 7:00!

It reminds me of the news show called Sept a Huit which runs on Sunday. Sept a Huit means Seven to Eight, but I notice that it actually ends at 7:45. I guess Sept a Sept Heure Quarante Cinq isn’t as catchy a name though.

It’s hard to tape shows on the drive as a result of timing. Better to add some time on either end of the show in order to not miss the end or beginning. The French have a reputation for being late, which doesn’t really fit with a culture that insists on keeping military time. When meeting someone, I usually build in “un bon quart d’heure” or a good fifteen minutes of waiting time. And by “un bon quart d’heure,” the French usually mean half an hour.

Because tardiness is somewhat expected, there is rarely a sense of feeling rushed. If you’re running late, chances are your friends may be running even later. That is unless it’s time to go on vacation.

Anniversaire

n. – anniversary or birthday
Ami(e)
n – friend

While I try not to name names in my posts, it will be inevitable for everyone to know what I’m talking about when I refer to a wildly popular social networking site. I have used it since before we moved to Paris, but find it even more convenient – comforting even – now that I’m that much further away from family and friends.

Only now though on my most recent birthday did I decide to update my profile to show my date of birth (month and date only of course!) I think the only reason I hadn’t done this before was because I didn’t realize you could opt for that vs. including the year as well. All of this being rather silly anyway since most of my “friends” know how old I am!

At the risk of sounding overly dramatic, I was overwhelmed with the amount of comments I received. Based on the number of “friends” I have, over 30% posted something, impressive as anyone in the direct response business knows. And I put quotes around friends because let’s face it, no pun intended, not everyone we’re connected to is a true friend – some are barely acquaintances and some total strangers with just one six degree of separation between us. You see I’m the kind of person who can’t really not accept a friend request. I also have never accepted and then un-friended someone as I know people do. So taking that into account and if I eliminated the people who I’m really not that close with from the overall total, my percentage rate would grow even higher.

I had comments from people I am in touch with regularly as well as comments from people I haven’t seen in almost 30 years! I asked my husband what the protocol was for responding since almost all the comments were posted to my wall and he said it wasn’t necessary – just that I should be sure to do the same for each of their birthdays.

I know we can all become cynical over time and social networking sites can at times be a strange phenomenon, even bordering on voyeuristic and intrusive, but I still found myself moved by an outpouring only made possible by such technology.

So, thank you internet super highway as you were first called, and thank you creators of social networks whoever you all may be, but most of all, thank you dear friends who reached out, for while the time and space between us may or may not have grown, your sentiments reached me and touched my heart.