France in Focus

After all those years I'm sometimes still surprised by the magic words "c'est midi maintenant".

11:15: driving around in circles to find a parking place.

11:57: the last cher client of our local brico shed is being served.

11:59: the lawn mowers go inside.

12:02: seven employees go out for lunch/dinner to be back around 14.15.

12:05: last man standing, he closes the exit door.

12:07: all alone on the parking waiting for the OH to arrive from the brandnew Bi supermarket.

Most tradespeople, along with customers, have gone off for lunch as well so little point in keeping a big store open.

I've just adjusted the fact that it is what it is. Especially in rural France.

I have been told it began some time in the distant past when it was too hot (further south ?) to work in the middle of the day so people got in the habit of taking a mid day break. In typical fashion everyone else decided it would be unfair to have to work when others didn't so the sound of tools being dropped at the stroke of mid day became the rule. I have been living here for about 23 years now and I still find it a pain in the butt to have to plan any shopping like a military exercise.

I accepted when we came here that errands needed to be done earlyish in the morning, especially if there's more than one. OH struggles as he's not an early riser, so ambles out at 11h30 and then wonders why he doesn't get much done
Supermarkets round here do stay open all day now, but that 'convenience' is offset by there only being one till open and a queue twice as long as normal.

It's swings and roundabouts, ain't it? Our boulangerie opens at 5 a.m, but is closed on Sundays. Our épicerie closes at midday + 2 half-days per week. Even the so-called 'chains' are family-run franchises and the family will be slaving from silly o'clock to earn a few sous.

No good either saying they could employ more hands: the cost of employment (twice the salary) is a brake on employment for small businesses.

The cost and responsibilities on the shoulders of small businesses is a real killer. There needs to be a big shakeup. Something between the French "jobs for life" setup and the British "job insecurity" disaster across the Channel.

Hotrodder wrote: ↑Sun Aug 25, 2024 10:45 am The cost and responsibilities on the shoulders of small businesses is a real killer. There needs to be a big shakeup. Something between the French "jobs for life" setup and the British "job insecurity" disaster across the Channel.

We're talking businesses, not "jobs"! My 30 years paying cotisations has produced a pension of €300/month, same for OH. If either of us had been employed, another nought might have been added, especially in la fonction publique.
Much has been done over the years to reform employment law, but les partenaires sociaux (employers and unions) have to agree before anything's done.
As long as the cost of employment is so high, opening hours will stay the same.

The small business situation, like restauration, will never be the same again. We had a tabac/presse/épicerie/toutes services in the village, open from 6h30 to 22h. Absolutely nothing that the proprietrice (82 when she retired last year) wouldn't get in for customers, and she kept going through the several closures of the bar and Covid, providing a little 'café corner'. When the bar was operational it was open from 7h to 23h if demand was there. Sold bread too, which was handy when the boulangerie folded. They were both commerces run by single women, so no family back-up there!
Now....a resto run by a young couple that's only open at midday and that turns away far more customers than they serve because they deliberately plan the quantity on the low side.
A bar that the new managers, another young couple, open when they feel like it, which isn't very often. They've just got back from a ten-day holiday and are wondering why they've lost what bit of custom was left If this is the current work ethos amongst the younger generation God help us all!

It's not generalised in th younger generation, although I've seen many instances of it.
None of my 4 is self-employed, but my sons do extra hours to earn more - whether they declare them is their business. My daughters both work silly hours (employed) but earn big salaries. They all have friends in the same situation.