Issue No. 18

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