Les ponts de mai

There are several public holidays during May in France and when one falls on a Tuesday or a Thursday taking the Monday/Friday off work is called 'bridging' the gap, faire le pont. There's one of these on Thursday and, as spring holidays always seem to encourage people to improve their houses and gardens, the DIY (bricolage) stores were busy this morning.

It's a bit of a myth, though, that French workers get a lot of holidays because if a holiday happens to fall on a Saturday there's no extra day given. This has happened twice this May because 1 May and 8 May are public holidays.