Workers in France are guaranteed at least 5 weeks paid vacation time each year.[1,2] Many people take that time off in the month of August. I don’t know how August became the vacation month, but that’s the way it is. Hours for many stores become even more limited or simply close – for the month!
Even in my hometown of Madison, WI there is a French bakery owned by a french family and they close up shop for most of August.
The disappearing of French workers also happens at CERN – professors, scientists, etc, many of them are gone. That leaves the rest of us with the chance to either get ahead in our work, or relax and take it easy as well.
(Oh, and did I mention that the French also have a 35-hour work week?[3])
Don’t worry though, the LHC is still on and they’re trying to reach higher beam luminosities. At the moment they’re working on some cryo problems:
Tags: student life
