Paris in August?

Paris in August

The advisability of a vacation in Paris in August continues to rear it's ugly head. Friends and acquaintances are telling us that folks in Paris pack up and take a collective vacation every August. What will there be for us to do, let alone eat?

In preparation for our trip, I bought and was loaned a few books. In the eight chapter of A Year in Provence (the chapters are months...), author Peter Mayle makes a huge point of the big city slickers coming into Provence from Paris. He even describes the, "twenty-mile traffic jams..reported on the autoroute at Beaune, and anyone getting through the tunnel at Lyon in less that a hour was considered lucky.." all routes south of and out of Paris. "A traditionally awful start to the month, and the ordeal woud be repeated four weeks later in the opposite direction during the exodus weekend. "

Another friend brought the Food Lover's Guide to Paris, by Patricia Wells. Looking at some of the chic swanky restaurants, I noticed they were closed in August.

How does an entire City take a vacation at once? Right now, I am taking solace in the fact that both books were written in the 1980s, and surely the chic citizens of Paris have seen some light, or value in staying open during what is someone else's vacation time?

Our daughter wanted to go to the Ballet while in Paris. I couldn't tell what show was on there, so I asked Marie for a URL. Sadly, the Paris Ballet company is on holiday during August. However, so is the SF ballet.

I await Marie's reply to my last email: is anything open in Viroflay during our stay? We may be taking lots of train rides. The countryside is supposed to be beautiful, and Bordeaux is open, right?