One thing the French will never learn: spreading the summer holidays
[quicktime width="430" height="40"]http://www.sheep.com/sounds/baasheep2.wav[/quicktime]
This weekend marks the traditional start of the French summer season. Yesterday was a ‘black’ day on French motorways. By noon, the combined traffic jam measured no less than 556km (345 miles). This was ‘less bad’ than last year, when the French created a total herd of 608km (378 miles).
French airports and railway stations are equally packed. The two Paris airports are bracing themselves for the take-off of 845.000 passengers this weekend, and the national railways operator SNCF has allocated 2.400 trains (of which 1.800 high-speed TGVs) to move 3.5 million travelers to their destination.
There is no such thing like a ‘holiday spread’ in France. Everybody wants to go to the sun in the same two weeks – swapping overcrowded cities for equally overcrowded beaches and campsites.
Meh!
