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Only two weeks

When I first came to France even the big supermarkets closed at lunchtime for two hours.  This custom continues for the other shops but I can at least do the supermarket shopping between 12 and 2.00pm.  So in some respects France is dragging itself slowly into last century and some day, long after I am gone, they will face up to this century.

Not that everything is like time stood still in France.  Their health service is fully computerised, the payment  system works, there are no delays in seeing a doctor or operations and it would be the envy of the United States if the US ever accepted that other countries can do things better than they can.

But I digress.  On one subject the French will not change because it isn't on their radar.  Holidays.  July and August still comes to a virtual standstill, except for the roads, when the French go on holiday.  This week I can't find anyone with whom to play tennis because they have departed for the south or North Africa.  I asked Therese if she was going on holiday and she said no, then added, we may go away for two weeks but that is all.  As though 2 weeks barely counted as a holiday, just a pause in their busy lives.

This means I have no choice but to continue trying to tame the garden.  Boring.

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