Take May 1st, for example, which was Fete du Travail - Labor Day. It fell on a Friday this year, so there were unfortunately no bridges to be had (since it leads straight into a weekend). However, last year it fell on a Thursday so the French took the Thursday AND the Friday off to make a bridge to the weekend. This practice is all kosher here - all government offices and schools closed that Friday.
May 8th, the Victory Day - again it fell on a Friday this year so no bridges, but again last year people took Thursday and Friday off.
Before you start to feel bad for the French for not getting a heck a lot of bridges this year, the 21st was the catholic holiday of Ascension - and yes! It fell on a Thursday. There we were, taking that Thursday and bridging that Friday to make a long weekend.
To finish off the month there was Pentecost, another catholic holiday, on the 31st. Falling on a Sunday, the French took this past Monday off.
We the Merlets were able to take advantage of those two long weekends.
The first bridging weekend we first went down to the Golf of Morbihan, where a cousin of my MIL lives with a dog. The girls absolutely loved this dog. I loved it somewhat less. After a morning of the girls clambering all over the dog, we were able to extract the girls from the house with a bunch of false promises and visited Carnac - a coastal town southwest of Brittany that is more awe-inspiring than most, in that you find thousands of stone structures. I know I am getting all the terminologies wrong here (dolmens? mehnirs?) , but there are several fields full of these large stones lined up - stretching for what seems like miles. Some are not that big and not that imposing, although we did visit a fallen megalith that once stood 20 meters tall (66 feet for you Americans). I am not awed by much, but I did find this place kinda magical. The kids found it a bit less magical, however, and wanted to know every 15 minutes when we would go back to see the dog.
Later that weekend our good friends the Delacotes paid us a visit from London. It is always so good to catch up with old friends and we all had a great time - we even had a grown-up only night, leaving the 4 girls with a babysitter - luxurious! We spent an afternoon in St Malo - see pic below, how the Merlet girls are concentrating on the desserts and the Delacote girls are fascinated by the shoes:
The second bridging weekend we spent two glorious sunny days on the beaches of St Malo. As always, PeeWee started a sand castle that took all of 4 hours to build - the girls get all excited for the first 15 minutes, helping him diligently, then promptly lose interest. But PeeWee always perseveres, even with blisters on his hands, and a bunch of other people's kids always turn up to help him for about 10 minutes at a time. When the castle is done, of course, it is time to head back. I just sit back and read my book and shake my head.
All in all, a lovely month of May!
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