Holiday Abundance

It's President's Day weekend in the US.  Monday is a holiday. 

I think that it's also "ski week" here.   Ski week is a  holiday week in February that was started a few years ago because so many of families took their kids out of school for a week to ski.  The schools decided that it was easier to "go with the flow".  Now there is a holiday week in February and the week has been tacked on to the end or beginning of the school year. 

Many of these holidays take me by surprise.  They're not on my calendar.  I'd forgotten that Monday will be a day off for many, including banks, schools and the post office.  At least I didn't plan a week of skiing thinking that I'd have the mid-week slope to myself. 

It feels like we just got over the Christmas/New Year's holidays.  I like the normalcy of daily life, unmarred by closures, multitudes of kids on skateboards and no mail service. 

I'm off to France soon, so I shouldn't complain about holidays here.  May is impossible in France with five holidays, November has a lot too. Then, if the holiday falls mid-week, the French people take a few days off either before or after the holiday to make it a long weekend.  It's called "le pont" or the bridge.    The abundance of holidays never ceases to amaze me. 

Easter is early this year, falling at the end of March.  In the US, I remember that some companies would give the employees a 1/2 day off for Good Friday.  What a treat.  In France, the Easter holiday is at least four days -- Friday through Monday since "Easter Monday" is a holiday for many people.  Stores are all open the day before Easter so everyone is out stocking up. 

Then, there are the vacances scolaries, for students. This holiday consists of two weeks off from school several times a year.  It is wise to never book travel at the beginning or end of these holiday periods, everyone scrambles to get out of town and cabs are scarce, train stations crowded and the roads jammed in both directions (in and out of town). 

While I like holidays in general, I think there are too many of them both here and in France.