Soldes and Bordeaux

In the U.S. I rarely purchase clothes at their full retail price. Instead, I head straight for the sales racks and find great deals on fashionable items up to 70% off. As far as I know, there are no regulations on when American stores can have sales, because it seems like all of my favorite stores always have something cute on the racks with a discounted price tag. So it was surprising to learn that France has state mandated sales twice a year, and you would be hard pressed to find something on sale (at least highly marked down) any other time of year. January saw the kick-off of the three week long "soldes" and every store had signs advertising their 25 - 70% off prices. I love shopping, so this was of course welcomed, but the most intriguing aspect of the soldes occured in the first weekend. As you may know (or read about in a previous post) it is illegal to be open on sundays unless your store has a permit. But with the current state of the economy, the shop owners' organizations and unions voted to have their shops open on the first sunday of the soldes. Being that it is France, and nobody hesitates to withold their opinion, especially if it is in regard to extending their work weeks, there was much voiced concern. On the one hand, those advocating the sunday opening argued that it would increase sales, thus improving the revenue of the shops and boosting the economy. Others argued that in reality, since people have less spending money because of the crunch in the economy, shops would be wasting money by having to pay employees to work extra on sundays( those employees who worked sunday were paid more) despite the fact that nobody would come to purchase items. Some shops opted out (like Carrefour, the Walmart-esque store here), but for the most part stores were open. The sunday work day debate isn't just one occuring here locally, it is actually one that Sarkozy has been trying to change since his election. According to a Newsweek article I read, Sarkozy wants people who want to work on sundays to have the right to do so (people who want to work on sundays are those that are unemployed, first time job seekers and young people), whereas his opposition says that having sunday as a work day would force poor people (aforementioned group who "want" to work on sundays) to feel obligated to work. They also say that it diminishes culture, as it would interfere with pick-up league soccer matches that occur on sundays. As a consumer living in French society, I will say that it is particularly frustrating to not be able to do much needed shopping on sundays (i.e. groceries) or just leisurely stroll the streets and window shop on the day of rest, but I suppose I can see the other side of the argument (why work more? 35 hour work weeks are awesome!)
Bordeaux
The last weekend of January, I hopped a train and headed south to visit a friend that lives in Bordeaux. You probably know of Bordeaux because of the wine, but it is a beautiful port city nestled along a river with lots of cute squares and gorgeous architecture (it was untouched during the war, so unlike many other French cities, including Orleans, important buildings weren't destroyed by bombs). I was visiting my friend Lizzie (see Spring Break in the Gambia and Christmas in Morocco) and we had quite a lovely time. It was much warmer in Bordeaux (like in the 50s) and so we strolled around and visited a cute local market before having lunch with other Americans that live in the area at a locally-grown produce restaurant (we ate a lot of squash because that was what was in season). We explored the city some more, hunted down the famous canelés (a baked treat that comes from Bordeaux), bought some Bordeaux wines, and then headed home to cook a fresh produce dinner. The next day we headed down to the river for an enormous market with everything you could imagine : Senegalese food, wine, rabbits, different sauces, pizza, shrimp, crepes, etc. Once fully satiated off the great eats, we headed to the museé de beaux arts, which we thought was closed (we found out later that in reality we were at the wrong building and the actual museum was open) so instead we went to a museum of textiles and interior design, which was interesting (got to check out all the gorgeous stuff rich people living in the 17th and 18th century had). It was a short visit, but it was a load of fun and Bordeaux itself is a beautiful city, definitely worth visiting again.
My next post will be about all the visitors I have had during the month of February (My friend Ryan from Ghana - read this post to jog your memory, Kether -my friend that lives in Paris, and my Mom who is coming for the winter break that starts tomorrow). So lots more to come!!