Even in this day and age, the French respect the two hour shutdown of their country so everyone can enjoy a leisurely lunch
J’habite entre le Brie et le Chateaubriand dans la vallee de la Loire.
Now, I don’t expect many of you to be able to translate this, but there are three words that should stand out to my fellow foodie-flies: “brie,” (cheese); “Chateaubriand,” (steak), and; “Loire,” (wine).
Translation: “I live between cheese and steak in the valley of wine.” It’s the perfect place for a Barfly to be, n’est-ce pas? I’ve been here for five months now and it feels more home than anywhere I’ve been since giving up my Barfly column for Easy Reader and leaving my fave apartment across from Abe’s Liquor on Monterey Boulevard in Hermosa Beach back in January 2009.
But there are certain things one must get used to living in Franceland, starting with “midi,” (midday). The French divide their day into “le matin,” (morning), and “après-midi,” (after their two hour lunch break from noon to 2 p.m.). That’s right, even in this day and age, the French respect the two hour shutdown of their country so everyone can enjoy a leisurely lunch. Schools, shops, government buildings, banks, bakeries, pharmacies, la gendarmerie, mechanics all close down.
You can eat at home or go to a café at this time and that’s it. Don’t breakdown with your car at 11:59 a. m. unless you have two hours plus to spare. Doing errands on your lunch break doesn’t happen here. There is one supermarket within a 10 mile radius of where I am that stays open during lunch and this is a new and controversial development — zut alors indeed.
Plan to wait
“Midi” has its benefits, but also its problems.
I live 12 kms (7 miles) from the main town. Diesel costs 1.47 euros per liter, ($9 a gallon). Naturally, I try to schedule everything I need to do in town at the same time to avoid having to go back and forth. Two things I need to schedule on a daily basis are the supermarket, (you buy fresh food everyday in France. You don’t stockpile processed food in cupboards months in advance), and internet, (I don’t have wifi chez moi). Luckily, there are a half dozen bars in the vicinity with wifi, along with the computers at the library.
This brings me to the next problem: random opening hours. The library is only open Tuesday morning ‘til noon, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday 10 a.m. — 5 p.m. Closed Sunday, Monday, Thursday and Tuesday afternoons. Last Tuesday I had an appointment with the bank at 2:30 p.m. but I wanted to go to the library because it is across the cobblestone “zone pietone” (town square), so I had to get to the library by 10 a.m. in order to have a couple hours on the computer and at the movie rental area because noon comes quickly and leaves me stuck for two hours with nothing to do but have lunch like the rest of the Frenchies.
Luckily, the big supermarket that stays open during lunch isn’t too far, so after a leisurely hour-long lunch I drove over to do my shopping and was done by 1:45 p.m. I still had another 45 minutes to kill. Frequenting another café for another café and a pain au chocolat took care of that and then I was off to open a French bank account. This took almost two hours. Not because it was difficult or because anything was wrong, but because everything in France takes two hours.
It was a pleasant enough experience, learning about the best creperie, charcuterie, boulangerie, café, bistrot and restaurant in town. (Although one can eat at any of these places, they are very different. If you go to a restaurant for a light lunch, not only will you be s.o.l., but you will be publicly scolded by the owner for not knowing better).
So, upon returning to my house that afternoon around 5 p.m., I realized I lost an entire day for a two hour bank appointment due to the random library hours coupled with the midday shutdown.
Let me revise what I said before about having to get used to certain things here and say, it’s actually more like “having to put up with” them because I can’t see myself getting used to these crazy hours nor can I see them changing.
Deb Lindh is Easy Reader’s former, longtime Barfly columnist. DebLNYC@aol.com.
