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Letters: Reader experiences of organising a funeral in France
Connexion readers share their advice to ensure the process goes smoothly
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Letters: Readers share their Brexit reset wishlists
Including re-entry into the customs union and restored EU rights
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Letters: French import duties on medication are unfair
Connexion reader has to import their treatment from the UK as it is unavailable in France
Needing closure
France, it has been said, shuts up shop for the month of August to take a holiday en masse .
The remainder of the year it (mainly) closes every Sunday for a rest, and for two solid hours on weekdays from 12 noon to 14.00 (the mandatory ‘entre midi et deux’) so that everyone can have a proper sit-down lunch. It can be infuriating when you want to buy a loaf at any of these times but the best advice is to go with local flow; have a holiday, day off or long lunch and enjoy a siesta yourself.
The workaholic modern world is steadily eating into this pattern but long may the French teach more hyperactive nations that life is a rhythm not a rush. There is a time for everything, even doing nothing. No one should be a slave to work or the timetabled whims of everyone else.
When one shopkeeper in a local town was asked, “Why don’t you open over lunchtime, you’d take all the customers from your competitor?” she replied, “If I do that, my competitor will open her shop too and neither of us will get to eat lunch.” Business is business but everyone needs a break.