Day 691 (Tuesday) 30^th April 2019

I had an early start and caught the bus into Nice; I had a nice chat with Guillaume and Anna (Guillaume in English and Anna in my poor French) before meeting Benny in the café.

At the end of the morning Guillaume informed me that I don’t have to work tomorrow because it’s May 1^st and NOBODY in France works on this day or next Wednesday 8^th. I sent a text to Florence and Jeannine offering a different day but neither of them has got back to me yet. Recently I found this article in the Local.fr about French bank holidays…

'Do the viaduct': Why 2019 is a great year in France for public holidays

(this photo is not mine)

France can look forward to a great year for public holidays in 2019. And you'll find there is ample opportunity to 'do the viaduct'...

It's a good year for public holidays in France this year, with just one falling on a weekend.

The French have nine weekday public holidays left in 2019, with four of them falling on Mondays meaning you get that long weekend without even trying.

This year only Ascension (May 30th) and Assumption Day (August 15th) fall on a Thursday (and none fall on a Tuesday) giving you just two chances to use that nifty little system called "doing the bridge" (faire le pont) so don't miss out on taking off Friday August 16th for an extra long break.

However while there isn't much chance to faire le pont in 2019, there is ample opportunity to 'do the viaduct' (faire le viaduc) as some have dubbed it, which although far less common than "doing the bridge", means taking two days off (either the Monday and the Tuesday or the Thursday and Friday) in order to make the most of the public holiday. 

This year three public holidays fall on a Wednesday so now's the time to get your holiday requests in. 

Four and indeed five-day weekends are a joy not just to workers but to the tourism industry as many in France will go away for a short break. On these weekends Paris could feel like it does in mid-August when most of the locals are at the beach.

Workers in the UK often miss out on the chances for these extra long weekends because most public holidays fall on a Monday or a Friday. 

The only downside to this year's public holidays is that July 14th - France's National Day or Bastille Day as we call it, falls on a Sunday, so we won't get a day off this year.

New Year's Day: Monday January 1st

Easter Monday: Monday April 22nd

Labour Day: Wednesday May 1st

Victory in Europe Day (end of WWII): Wednesday May 8th

Ascension: Thursday May 30th

Pentecost: Monday June 10th

National Day: Sunday July 14th

Assumption Day: Thursday August 15th

All Saints' Day: Friday November 1st

Remembrance Day: Monday November 11th

Christmas Day: Wednesday December 25^th

Sadly I won’t be doing a ‘viaduct’ this week just a ‘bridge’; I have tomorrow off and Thursday as it’s my usual day off but I have to work on Friday, but I’m not complaining.

I walked from Langazur to International House a different way today and saw this lovely church nestled among all the big modern hotels.

I also saw this rather bizarre sign, which is somehow connected to a French bank.

 

I was a little early for Paloma so I ate my quiche in the lovely Parc Mozart

I caught the train home and was really pleased when I got to the beginning of Rue du Poilu to see that the scaffolding on the first house is finally being removed; it’s been covered for months.

 

I walked home through the park and it was looking as lovely as ever

While I was in work Huw had a very interesting, successful morning in the new place – over to Huw.

The owner of the new place M. Compan came to collect the sink and vanity unit and he is a very interesting man. His is a family of Villefranchois going back generations and I think in my rubbish French he said they had been here for over three centuries. He still speaks the old Nissa language too. Both he and the agents were very happy with the renovations. When I first climbed the stairs I was disturbed to see a reasonable lump of masonry had fallen out of the roof in the ceiling.

We spoke about this and he is trying to get the ‘syndic’ (owners committee) to pay for the work but the Milanese who has the top floor is never there and they struggle to contact him but M. Compan said it will be done. As this is France there is no way of actually finding out when though.

The final visitor was an electrician who basically said that whoever installed the hot water boiler was useless and the system along with the power from the mains is not strong enough so more negotiations will have to be done by our agents to get this sorted.

Last job of the morning was to talk to our internet providers and we now have a date when it will be transferred to the new apartment, May 10^th so I guess we will make the big move around then.