February in Paris

Happy Chandeleur aka Crêpe day.

This holiday, originally Pagan, became Candlemas and farmers celebrated that winter would be ending soon and that if you flipped crêpes in the pan without dropping one - fortune and a good crop would be yours. 

February is short, the strikes are pretty much over in France. 

Some researchers feel the upside to the strike - if there is one - are the changes people made in transport that might have long ranging effects.

According to a poll by a French mobility research firm  19% of people who traveled to work on one specific day during the strikes -- Dec. 9 in this case -- used a mode of transport they had never before used for their commute.

Those who switched to informal car sharing or cycling were particularly positive about their experience -- 59% said they could switch to cycling to and from work in normal times. 

But February means, strike or no strike, the French are planning their vacances.

It's surprising to Americans but in Europe holidays are scheduled and organized like precision clockwork. 

Why?

My Paris friend Anne explained it this way - if you work, have a child in the Parisian public school system, you have eight weeks of school holidays to cover per year. 

That means either you take your child on holiday, pay a care giver, or they go to the grandparents. And these holidays happen almost every other month. On top of that, it means every one else is scrambling to do the same things. Trains, planes get booked, camp fills up, museums get crowded.

Any of you getting out the calendar and planning a trip?

Cara on Tuesday PS Murder in Bel-Air, Aimée Leduc's 19th Parisian Investigation, is out today in paperback.https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781616959296