French idiosyncrasies

[demi]

And I can't believe the amount of retired (French) people I know who go on holiday during the school holidays - not even with their families, just as a couple!

And on hair dyes - I see a lot of jet black on older women, which I think is very unflattering.

[Pathca]

Has it replaced the red that was in vogue a bit ago

[Blaze]

@Pathca I've asked hairdressers that question. There are still some women who love various shades of red - some middle aged women round here have blue streaks or red
They say it's generally more flattering to dye your hair a bit lighter as you get older.
Oh dear, that awful dark henna that so many men seem to favour .....

[exile]

Not sending Christmas cards to the point that they can be difficult to find in the shops.

[rabbit]

My hairdresser who also cuts ladies’ hair has a product by the mirror called
« Dumb Blond »

[widge]

And I can't believe the amount of retired (French) people I know who go on holiday during the school holidays - not even with their families, just as a couple!

And on hair dyes - I see a lot of jet black on older women, which I think is very unflattering.

Probably the only time they get off from looking after the grandchildren.

[exile]

A word about opening hours. Most businesses (especially small) are family run, so no employees to take over at lunchtime. Other, with employees, want to keep to 35h, so close for 2-3h duri,g the day. It's all down to the crippling cost of employing folk.

Not disagreeing with anything you have written but I think in some cases it may go deeper than that.

My first exposure to the 2 hour lunch (outside shop opening hours when on holiday) was several years before we thought of buying a house in France.

Our transport procurement department held regular reviews of the performance of the hauliers we employed to deliver our products. On this occasion the German logistics managers were called to a meeting with a French haulier to discuss performance at each of the German plants. The firm concerned was a family owned one and while not as big as Norbert Dentressangle (now XPO), they were certainly a mid sized company with over 100 vehicles - so not small beer with a handful of employees. The review was going well until the procurement manager asked if there were any issues to raise. The representative for the largest plant said that their order handling/dispatch office were unhappy that they could never contact anyone between 12:00 and 14:00. [Not an issue for any of the other plants]

The transport company's MD explained that the entire office staff took lunch together, over which all sorts of things were discussed including any company issues or problems. He gave a clear impression that he considered such behaviour as normal and in fact it was team building to have everyone from different departments together, sorting out issues in an informal way.