Choosing to stay in the city and work over August is as alien to Parisians as veganism <\/p>\n
\nImagine a world where August is a universal month off for the UK \u2014 a time for rest, family, holidays and no work.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a practise favoured in continental Europe and supporters argue that the shared break causes less disruption, improves mental health, and can even increase long-term productivity. However, there are doubts it would work in the UK with critics raising concerns about economic slowdown, service disruption and inequality.<\/p>\n
So, should we all get August off? Economist Hamish McRae<\/a><\/strong>, journalist Emily Watkins<\/a> <\/strong>and French-British comedian Tatty Macleod<\/strong> offer their perspective.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\u201cWhere are you spending August?\u201d Asks my friend Louis as we sip a glass of ros\u00e9 in the scorching Parisian sun<\/a>. \u201cI\u2019m staying here\u201d \u2013 he nearly spits out his Ch\u00e2teau Minuty at the absurdity of my phrase. This is the reaction I\u2019ve been getting ever since the weather warmed up <\/a>and the vacances became everyone\u2019s favourite topic of conversation. Choosing to stay in the city and work over August is as alien to Parisians as veganism.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve created an entire career around comparing French and British cultures and there is nothing that resonates more than the difference in our work habits<\/a>. My sketch of a French woman outraged at the audacity of her English boss calling her up to \u201ccheck where she is\u201d whilst she\u2019s on the beach (obviously, it\u2019s August) has over 20 million views. It\u2019s one of those fundamental culture clashes \u2013 like French versus English drinking<\/a> or coq au vin versus fish and chips.<\/p>\n
Though I grew up in France<\/a>, taking August off isn\u2019t a French-ism I\u2019ve adopted. In fact as a comedian it\u2019s usually my busiest month of the year. August typically involves 30 days at the Edinburgh Festival doing back-to-back shows, flyering on the Royal Mile and having a nervous breakdown. A monumental whirlwind in the Scottish sun<\/a> that culminates in the paranoid envy of the Edinburgh Comedy Awards. It\u2019s the least relaxing time of the year.<\/p>\n
That was before I moved to Paris eight months ago. It\u2019s funny how quickly you adapt to your environment because after 10 years in London \u2013 a decade of \u201cAugust is just another month\u201d \u2013 I\u2019m completely re-thinking my habits. <\/p>\n
This is partly due to social pressure, there are only so many times you can explain \u201cin England everything stays open\u201d. Then as my dinner companion looks at me with utter pity, \u201cit isn\u2019t that in the UK we don\u2019t go on holiday, it\u2019s just that we go at different times of the year\u201d. Louis gives me a conciliatory smile before returning to his ros\u00e9 and planning his August retreat to l\u2019\u00cele de R\u00e9.<\/p>\n
Here are my observations after countless wine-filled debates with Parisians. In the UK we spread annual leave so that everyone isn\u2019t away at the same time. In France they do the opposite. The French decided to cram all annual leave over the summer<\/a> so that all workforce are absent at the same time.<\/p>\n
This business hiatus means that you won\u2019t return after an extended break to hundreds of unread emails and an anxious month catching up on all the work you missed. If you do however decide to stay, you\u2019ll be faced with a barrage of out of office emails and tumbleweed in the workplace.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve also realised that it isn\u2019t just a question of when we holiday but also how we holiday. In France they take longer holidays. An average holiday here is 13.7 days versus 8.7 days<\/a> in the UK. As one friend of mine put it, \u201cIf it\u2019s not two weeks, it\u2019s not a holiday\u201d \u2013 if you say so Jean-Baptiste.<\/p>\n
Not only that, the French like to go away within France<\/a> whereas in the UK only 14.8 per cent <\/a>of Brits opt to stay put. If the Brits do choose a staycation it\u2019s usually a shorter holiday, typically 3.3 days<\/a>. We like the UK for mini breaks but not for our meaty getaways. This tallies with the way in which we take annual leave, in France they holiday in long blocs over one period whereas in the UK we spread our trips throughout the year opting for shorter holidays with more variety.<\/p>\n
There are a minority of French people who are bucking the trend and holidaying in September. Notably those without children who can make the most of off-peak travel. These trail-blazers are known as \u201cLes Septembristes\u201d. A cooky minority that you\u2019ll spot enjoying cheap travel and better value hotels in undercrowded tourist spots. But for the great majority, les vacances is synonymous with August.<\/p>\n
This year I\u2019m taking a leaf out of the French book and for the first time since 2016 I\u2019m not going to Edinburgh. I was looking forward to discovering Paris in August deserted of all Parisians but instead I\u2019m following the herd and heading south. I suspect it will be expensive and full of the screaming children but at least when I return this autumn I\u2019ll have a socially acceptable answer to the question, \u201calors les vacances?\u201d. One which won\u2019t make my friends choke on their ros\u00e9.<\/p>\n
Tatty Macleod is a comedian<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Choosing to stay in the city and work over August is as alien to Parisians as veganism Imagine…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":282145,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5309],"tags":[2000,299,36,2406,1411,71418,10785,21557],"class_list":{"0":"post-282144","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-france","11":"tag-holidays","12":"tag-paris","13":"tag-perspectives","14":"tag-summer-holidays","15":"tag-work-culture"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114896174131368619","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282144\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/282145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}