My Good Life in France
Sometimes I get France. And sometimes I don’t. Take the law for instance.
In my local café in which the locals gather to gossip, a recent topic of debate was about the misfortunes of a baker who owns a boulangerie near Troyes in the Champagne region. He decided to open his boulangerie 7 days a week in the summer of 2017 in order to serve the needs of the many tourists who flocked to the area. All well and good you might think, but non. Someone, who is not owning up to it, reported him for contravening a local decree that prevents anyone working 7 days a week, even if it is their own business and they choose to do so. The labour union that was tasked with enforcing the law was apparently reluctant to do so, especially as the baker was supported by the local Mayor and residents. They asked other local business owners if they agreed that the baker should be fined. Astoundingly, the result was yes, and the baker was fined €3000. So far, he has refused to cough up.
You might think that strange enough but there’s more. I have a plastic pig in my garden, don’t ask, I don’t know why I bought it but plastic animals are popular in my part of France, so it doesn’t look as odd as you might think! I told Annie the café owner, about my plastic cochon and said I was going to call it Napoleon. “Ah non” she said, “You can’t do that, it’s against the law”. And, it’s true. It’s illegal to call a pig Napoleon in France, maybe even a plastic one.
There are plenty of strange laws in France I’ve since discovered. Did you know for instance it’s illegal to kiss at a train station in France? Or that there is a centuries old law that requires all French citizens keep a haystack handy, in case the King passes by and needs hay for his horse. Stranger still, it is legal in France to marry a dead person with the permission of the President and if you have a good reason to do so.
I still have much to learn about France it seems and some of it is very strange!
Bisous, bisous
Janine