Tristesse (treestess=sadness)
On this first day of 2011 the French media has already revealed the grim truth: most major holidays will fall on a weekend and May, which is usually rife with long weekends, is noticeably bare for the first time since 1870.
Discovering how many calendar-given vacation days one will get in a new year is akin to discovering you forgot to open one of your presents . . . and usually it's a good one. If a holiday falls on a Friday it's a free long weekend. If it falls on a Thursday you use up one of your monthly vacation days (RTT) to turn it into a très long weekend.
The unions better think twice about striking this year. The French are tolerant but if they're already feeling short-changed by the calendar they might not be so indulgent to let strikes mess with the "few" days of vacation still left.
Hold on to your chapeaux people--it's going to be a long year....
