France still shuts for the summer

Connexion Facebook readers shared their experiences of the great summer shutdown.

SO daft that they all go on holiday at once. All this does is put a ridiculous strain on the hotels, restaurants and other holiday infrastructure. A.C.

HERE in the Gers it works, with staggered holidays with chemists and bread shops sharing July and August. I think in the UK businesses would be worried of losing customers, not here. B.H.

IT doesn’t affect us one bit– we are used to it. We used to live in the Corrèze, now Bourgogne. Just work round it. A.S.

I FIND it so strange that a very busy chemist store can afford to close its doors for a month for holidays. Yes, there is another chemist in the small town where I live so no one is without medication but the loss of turnover can only confirm very high profit margins. F.L-M.

HERE, near Paris, everything is shut, no baker, no chemist within 15km of where I live. The pleasant thing is that while all the Parisians are stacked on the beaches, the roads in Paris are empty, and that is priceless. E.K.

NEVER rely on posted hours/days as a guide to when a shop is open. Most shops appear to be run as a hobby. M.W.

THE holiday season is the busiest time of year for restaurants/bars but the cash and carry shelves are practically empty and there are hardly any staff so you have to queue for ages. They haven’t a clue how to run a business and don’t seem to care either. P.D.

FRIDGE is on the blink, managed to find a firm open to repair it in August but spare parts – no chance for four weeks. C.R.

I HAVE insurance paperwork to finish by a certain date, but my agent has disappeared and is probably not likely to be back until after that date. No phone message, no email out of office. M.W.

I JUST love the French online shopping sites. You order something you urgently need, get as far as the payment stage, and then there’s an announcement saying no orders will be dealt with until the end of August. A.F.