Displaced

Everything is closed on Sundays unless you get up at the crack of dawn and go to the farmer’s market before it shuts down in the late morning. If you miss the market, you are screwed: there will be no more activities available for the rest of the day. You can console yourself with an Orangina at a cafe until about 2PM but then you’re done for the day. Go home. Give it up. You won’t be able to get groceries or anything else until tomorrow, or, if you’re in the middle of nowhere, Tuesday.

A word to the wise: get your vacationing ass out of bed on Saturday and take care of everything you’ll need for the next couple of days. Gas up your car, collect your baguettes and go buy that handbag today ’cause tomorrow you’ll be out of luck. Oh – also make sure that your boat/yourself are parked someplace pleasant to enjoy the closure of the entire country, preferrably by the water with bikes and books.

(Or you can go to Versailles. In the rain. You and everyone else who’s been left with no plans for Sunday. I knew there was a reason I’d never gone to Versailles on previous trips.)

*Note: I fully approve of a 5-6-day workweek, especially for the working classes. We’re just used to something different here, so plan to adjust accordingly.