Juillettiste ou Aoûtien?

The French work hard. Let's be clear about this. I've lived in a few places where, I'm sorry to say, I'm not sure I could say this about most of the population, most of the time. Places too hot to move or places too macho to lend a hand...while France can be hot and France can be macho, they are most certainly not lazy.
But as I've waxed on about already in earlier blogs, they do have a lot of holiday time. And as they are "chauviniste" (which in French means nationalistic) they quite often love to travel to another part of France. Taking advantage of this trend, the government staggers holiday times by a week here and there to allow the sea and ski resorts to flourish. While students are slogging away in one department, another department's students are flinging their way down the slopes. It all works out nicely, unless you're in a place like the South of France to which most of France seems to migrate throughout the year.
The French, if they've a choice, do this in two waves--July and August. Traditionally workmen and craftsmen take off a few weeks in the month of July to spend time with their families and while white collars take the month of August as it's believed no important decisions are made in the month of August so their vital presence in the office can be missed... following suit, stores, restaurants and bakers shut down. Paris becomes a ghost town. Which suits the returning juillettiste just fine!
Doesn't the President of the Republic head for the beach in August? Yes, he comes here, to the south of France. Like everyone else! And I can tell you, and I have done so, it's madness.