Why are there Monday’s in France?

Why are there Monday’s in France?

An interesting question, you ask? We have always known that many French museums were closed on Mondays; most, but not all. So, in planning a visit to Paris, one looks up in advance which museums are impacted and works around that...but what about the rest of the country – when it seems like EVERYTHING, from grocery stores to restaurants as well as museums are closed? What do these people do with Mondays?? Are they automatically added to weekends so that everyone gets two days off in a row? Or what??? We were up fairly early (Robert-the-Sensitive with a mosquito in the room...) and headed out to find some breakfast. Fortunately, Lyon is BIG, so there were places opening up. We’d had a fairly quiet night on Sunday, although there were some noises coming from a nearby square; didn’t know why, but after looking at French TV, saw indications of trouble in several French cities because of the Presidential elections. As we walked to the main square in Lyon, we heard burglar alarms going off, and when we got closer, saw that several stores had had their windows broken or completely smashed. Didn’t look like anyone had taken anything – computers in one travel agency were all there – was it simply a civil protest over the next 5 years? Hmmmm....interesting. After good croissants, jus d’orange and chocolat chaud (pour moi), headed back to check out of the hotel. Around the corner with our luggage, and out of town we headed; sun shining brightly, and traffic not at all bad! Headed first for Vienne and St. Romain-en-Gal – Roman ruins on opposite sides of the Rhone river from each other. Found the new museum and saw extensive ruins under excavation...and got up to the door, and voila, it’s Monday! Everything closed!! Then we headed into Vienne and wound our way up to the top of the highest hill where the early Romans were said to have settled. Didn’t see any signs at all, but R has a new book on Roman sites in Southern France. Parked the car and walked up to the top of the hill. I was taking a picture of the town looking down the Rhone, and we were wondering where the Roman stuff was – and, true to my non-visual roots, R looked down, and there, spread out below us, was the theatre! Amazing! Lovely theatre, still in use today (those Romans really knew how to build) as well as an Odeon (smaller theatre used principally for readings).
From there, we headed out of town on back roads heading toward Taulingnan, our stop for the night.
Stopped for lunch in Chabeuil, at Le Café du Centre (most other places being closed...Monday, remember??) and it was GREAT! R had poulet and frites, and I had a salad Dauphinoise with lettuce, tomato, roquefort, croutons, onion and lardons, still warm. We followed that up with fondant au chocolate for me (still warm from the oven or microwave; just incredible!) in a pistachio sauce with cream, and R had the tarte du pommes Normande, which he said was great. Rolling then out of the restaurant, we reached Taulignan about 3 o’clock. Parked in the car park across the street from the hotel (certainly looks different when there aren’t hundreds of Tour-de-France spectators in town!). As it turns out, I had made our reservation with the proprietor, who is in Germany at the moment – and the gal who was left in charge had no notice of our coming ... fortunately, though, it’s not the high season, so there is plenty of room at the inn – and we’re right at the top of the hotel (3 floors up...and R yet again reminded me of his latest requirement of an elevator that hits all floors). Nice room; very basic, but clean and comfortable with TV AND telephone, so we can use the computer! We settled in and then took a walk around town ... didn’t take very long, as this is a small space. But, the bad news is that the restaurant is not operational now, as it is still out of season! So, our big reason for coming here (other than the fact that I love the town!) to eat again in the restaurant, will have to wait for another trip! Oh well!! There are two other restaurants in town, but one is closed because **it’s Monday** and the second, the brasserie next door to the hotel, has been closed for the annual vacation – inclusive of today (because one would never come back from holiday on a Monday...) – which means they’ll be open tomorrow! So, after a nice lie-down in the late afternoon, we will soon be heading for Grignan, to see if any of the restaurants there are open tonight! It is Monday, after all...Tomorrow we’ve decided to head back north again to Vienne and St. Romain-en-Gal to see the Roman museum and site. It’s only about an hour by autoroute (as opposed to half-a-day if you take the wonderful back roads, which we prefer) so we will do that in the morning, and then head south again to Orange for the next couple of days. So, if anyone has any information about what the French do with their Mondays, we would certainly appreciate an update!!

Love to you all, and more later!
m

PS - Found a new button on the car today!! There is one button, near the mirror adjustment, that if you press it, both mirrors automatically fold up next to the car – guess it’s for getting into tight spaces – and then if you press it again, they fold out to where they were! Neat!! And, as I put the car comments directly on to the blog, I can’t remember if I told you all that there are 6 forward gears to this car, as well as the usual reverse? SIX?! Also, 1st and Reverse are right next to each other on the top left-hand side of the transmission – can I tell you how awkward it is to think you’re putting the car into reverse and then go forward instead? Think about it!!! The air has been blue in the Brucato car on more than one occasion...
m