Every day is a holiday

There are lots of holidays in France-- a record 3 long weekends in the month of May alone. The impressive thing was that these were 4-day and not 3-day weekends because various catholic holidays that I am not familiar with fell on Tuesdays and why not take the whole week off or at least the Monday before? This strategy allowing the maximum vacation time possible is called 'making the bridge.'

People not from catholic countries always point out the excess of holidays as the most tangible advantage of catholicism.

Tomorrow is another holiday (Assomption) although this is almost redundant as the entire country of France is on vacation for the entire month of August. Paris is empty and very pleasant now, despite rain and tourists. Everyone here is horrified that in the US, you only get 2 weeks of vacation per year, which is admittedly quite horrible. The "per year" is always an important qualifier for the French-- it suggests that alternate possibilities like 2 weeks per month or every 2 months would be acceptable...

Hope you're all enjoying your vacation-- however long or short it might be per year.