Sundays in France, OPEN ON SUNDAY.
Before we moved to France, many people told us the stories about how everything is closed on Sundays in France. While it is not necessarily untrue, it is not as true as I had thought.
Just this morning, despite the rain, despite being sick, despite not feeling like it, I went out to get some food. We normally go to the market around the church St Aubin. Well with the rain I didn’t feel like braving it, but I went out anyway. I stopped at Les Diablotins to get a rotisserie chicken. OPEN ON SUNDAY. Then I stopped at Le Halle Aux Pain, our favorite bakery, to buy some bread, OPEN ON SUNDAY. I had to make my way through the people smoking outside of the 3 cafes around Place Dupuy, OPEN ON SUNDAY. I crossed the street and had to cross Place Dupuy and the hordes of people lining up for something at Le Halle Aux Grains, OPEN ON SUNDAY. I could see some people going to Marché St Aubin, OPEN ON SUNDAY. The Vietnamese epicerie on the way home was, OPEN ON SUNDAY. Later on we went to the Mediateque to get a DVD and some books, OPEN ON SUNDAY. This is all very close to our apartment. If that much is open, there must be alot more things, OPEN ON SUNDAY.
I want to know why Le Halle Aux Pain is closed on Saturday.
The same thing goes for the stereotypical 2 hour lunch break when everything is closed, except all the things that are not closed. This I can imagine is different in big cities but a friend was visiting recently from Lyon. I wanted to go to Le Halle Aux Pain for some bread at lunchtime. It never occurred to me that it might not be open. I went out even though he mentioned that he doubted a bakery would be open during lunchtime. This struck me as very odd. A bakery would be exactly the kind of thing I’d expect to be open during lunch. I mean they sell sandwiches and even have a menu with a sandwich, drink, and dessert.
Of course they were open, but it made me wonder how many people cling to these ideas and don’t even see if things are open at lunch or on Sundays. Imagine if you worked all week long and had a 2 hour lunch but couldn’t get anything done because everything was closed at lunchtime. Well you’d do stuff on Saturday. Well that is something I am in agreement with. Do not try to do anything on Saturday that involves going to a store unless you are about to starve, they are packed and no fun. I can’t think of how to end this other than that i find it odd that such a secular state would hold the “Sunday off” tradition so dear, yes it is as much cultural now as it was religious, but still.
Not so similar but good nonetheless
Tags: sundays in france
June 9th, 2008 at 5:52 pm
In Paris, the major stores (Galeries Lay=fayette, Printemps, Monoprix, et al) are closed , but there are a lot of smaller places, usually operated by muslims, that are open.
June 11th, 2008 at 2:42 am
I don’t know, I never minded the random closures of businesses in France, I found it reassuring that the French valued something more than business. I can see it might be an imposition, but one that can be worked around.
June 11th, 2008 at 6:51 pm
Well, yes, there are some markets and other places open on Sunday, but they usually close around 1 pm, before many partygoers set foot outdoors.
http://cyberfrance.blogspot.com/2006/02/just-say-cheese.html
June 21st, 2008 at 12:51 pm
Well I guess when you arrive at home at 7AM Sunday morning it is hard to get up before 1PM.