Yet another reason to ESCAPE TO PARIS

If anyone is cursing because you have to wait a couple of weeks for the winter soldes in Paris, please don’t. A supplement in the Melbourne Age newspaper today has reminded me of yet another reason to escape to France. There’s something vaguely obscene about people camping in the streets as they do in Australia from 11pm Christmas night so they can be first into the Boxing Day sales when they open at 5am. If we rename December 25 as Consumerist Day, then I guess that would be okay, or at least consistent. But to call it Christmas Day and then follow it immediately with such nonsense, just turns it all into… humbug!

To top it all off, they’ve spelt ‘bargain’ as ‘bargin’. Now surely there would be a national outcry if either of these heresies occurred in France!

In Paris and most departments of France, les soldes begin on January 7 at a civilised 8am. The DGCCRF (Direction General de la Concurrence, de la Consommation et de la Repression des Fraudes) sets the dates each year, decreeing that the soldes last for five weeks, with the original price tags clearly displayed.

In Meurthe-et-Moselle, les soldes start on January 5, likewise in Meuse, and Moselle. In Guadelope it’s January 3, St Pierre et Miquelon January 21, and in Reunion they have to wait until February 2.