Posted: 22 Jul 2013 by David Lebovitz
I hate to tell you this. But not
everyone in France gets five weeks for les
vacances. While it’s true that most people in France get a five weeks of
vacation, I am not quite there yet. Nor am I at the point where
I get 7 weeks of vacation, as a few of my friends do. (But that’s what I
continue to aspire to*.) Take, for example, this summer my vacation time is
less than twenty-four hours.
In French, les vacances is/are almost
always plural. Perhaps it’s because everyone just does it en masse. So I’m not sure if
I have to right to call my twenty-four hours vacation, in the plural. But who
has time to quibble over grammar (French or English) when I am this close to
collapsing.
Fortunately a neighbor who works
with Les Étangs de Corot took
pity on me sweltering in my office during the heatwave, staring at words on a
computer screen for hours at a time while fusing to the plastic of my office
chair, gulping ice water, and invited me to come to the hotel and spa for the
night, knowing that even the hottest American – the one who is remaining in
Paris (not necessarily the one with the hottest backside) – needs a break.
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