It was simpler in the old days, when France only shut down for the month of August. But Prime Minister Lionel Jospin's adoption of a 35-hour working week, combined with ponts or "bridges" between weekends and holidays that fall during the week, have turned May into a month of vacation, when it is increasingly impossible to do business in France.
There are three French bank holidays in May, four if you count Pentecost, which this year falls on June 4th. May 1st is labour day, commemorating the repression of workers' demonstrations in Chicago 111 years ago. May 8th marks the allied victory of 1945, and May 24th the ascension of Christ.
In addition, most French companies require employees to use up accrued vacation time from the previous year by the end of May. The result can be catastrophic. The Irish Times's banker has vanished, and requests for interview or business appointments have a one in two chance of success. "We can't count May or August in planning," a Paris building contractor said when I enquired about refurbishing an apartment. "It's a very slow time for us," says an estate agent. "Neither the clients nor the owners are there."
In government jargon, the 35hour week is referred to as the reduction du temps de travail. The abbreviation RTT, as a synonym for more leisure, has entered common usage in France and may soon be in the dictionary. One airline even uses it in advertising, with the slogan "Air TT". It is part of what sociologists call "the cult of free time" in France; leisure is the single biggest expenditure in French household budgets. Some employers have tried to maintain control of workers' schedules, but by and large employees are now masters of the calendar. By continuing to work 39 hours, they accumulate four hours a week in time off, which they save up as days to combine with bank holidays.
Maximising one's days off has become an art, a new form of French genius. Mr Remy Robinet-Duffo, an insurance executive who heads the Paris branch of the management association MEDEF, calculated the windfall in leisure time created by the May holidays. "From the 28th of April until the 14th of May, with seven days of RTT you can take 16 days of vacation," he told Le Figaro. "And if an employee has a little money left, he can leave from the 23rd of May [the eve of the Ascension holiday] until the 5th of June. If he does that, he gets 13 days holiday counted as only six days off. With 13 `35-hour week' days, you can take 29 days of vacation."
A French employee who takes no extra time off - by simply taking advantage of the "bridges" between weekends and bank holidays - works only 18 days this May. "We're the laughing-stock of our European neighbours," Mr Robinet-Duffo complained. "What economy can bear this?"
The sociologist Jean Viard says the mobile phone has also increased the French enthusiasm for leisure, since the user can be reached anywhere. He notes "a new social tension" between those who take advantage of the RTT to take entire weeks off and those who merely take a few days here and there.
When companies began granting "bridge" days 20 years ago, the free Friday or Monday was considered a gift or bonus to employees. By 1990, the practice was institutionalised, and led to mass migrations of holiday-makers. Today, "bridges" are considered a right which no one dares question. In addition to the four weeks of August, a week at Christmas and a week at Easter, the French now take several shorter holidays each year - 35 percent more this year, according to the Frantour agency. At the same time, these breaks have lengthened from less than two days to three and a half days.
The main beneficiaries are clothing retailers and travel agencies. This year, department stores remained open on the May 8th holiday, and reported excellent sales. The Nouvelles Frontieres agency reports a 25 percent increase in turnover this May, compared to "normal" months. This spring has been the rainiest on record, and ticket sales to Morocco, Tunisia, Corsica, Greece, Spain and Italy are especially high.
