| Author | Message | ||
     Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 4187 Registered: 05-2005 |
Less than 26 hours to go from where I type. Our NZ brethren are already into Christmas Eve. Hope Santa brings what you need. | ||
| andreas Member Username: Andreas Post Number: 880 Registered: 04-2006 |
merry christmas to all fellows out there in gobs message board land! | ||
| TROU Member Username: Trou Post Number: 291 Registered: 05-2005 |
Merry Christmas everyone! | ||
| Andrew Kerr Member Username: Andrew_k Post Number: 680 Registered: 04-2005 |
I wish everyone the full festive experience and a "Joyeux Noel" as they say round these parts. I must say that there is not much that I miss about old Blighty, but the fact that if a public holiday falls on the weekend you get the Friday or Monday off is one advantage. In France it's not the case. So this is kinda just like any other weekend. Working today and working Monday. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 4194 Registered: 05-2005 |
I'm shocked Andrew! Not what I expected of the French at all. So St Stephen's Day (aka boxing day) is not a holiday in France? Surely striking French workers have set trucks alight to have these days off? | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 2302 Registered: 01-2005 |
Merry Christmas to all my fellow GoBs fans. | ||
| David Gagen Member Username: David_g Post Number: 362 Registered: 02-2007 |
Merry Christmas everyone | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 2810 Registered: 03-2005 |
Happy holiday everyone! Andrew, I gotta love the French. They make sure people get a civilized number of days off (a far cry from the U.S.) but they must also take their separation of church and state very seriously (also now a far cry from the U.S.). Xmas is a holiday for one particular religion. The French must figure you'll take the day off on your own initiative if you are of that religion. I wonder how the Germans do it. | ||
| andreas Member Username: Andreas Post Number: 886 Registered: 04-2006 |
we are in advantage. we have two holiday days at christmas: the first and the second christmas day (25. and 26. 12) i.e. in 2011 we do not work on monday. and i really need this day off! | ||
| Andrew Kerr Member Username: Andrew_k Post Number: 682 Registered: 04-2005 |
Randy, It is not quite as simple as that. OK France is supposed to be a secular state, but the fact remains that a large number of our public holidays are based on important Catholic "fętes". My childrens' school holidays at the end of October are "Vacances de la Toussaint" for example (and that is the official name on the state's education web-site). I have been in France for 9 years, but sometimes still feel bewildered at the customs and culture. There often seem paradoxs between the ideas of "Liberté, egalité et fraternité" and the reality of the way that things function. For example: the behaviour of the gendarmerie, who seem to have come straight out of a fascist police state. A friend told me recently that the only time he has ever had a gun pointed at him, it was the gendarmerie. He was woken up in a hotel in Toulouse with a pump-action rifle pointed at his head and 6 gendarmes in the bedroom. They brought in a guy, asked him if my friend was the one. He replied 'no' and they left. I asked my friend what happened then and he said that he got a free breakfast from the hotel. In Britain police behaviour like that that would be completely unacceptable. But there are good things about living here! As the saying goes "The French work to live, the British live to work". I imagine that your average American would have a real problem with the power and interventions of the State in your daily life in France. And yet it is based on history (the Revolution in particular) and a belief in working together for a common purpose/good. |