If there is one thing that is sacrosanct in France, it is lunch hour. There is probably nothing else that is of greater importance. In fact, it is illegal for a worker to eat lunch at his or her desk. Both the employee and the employer can be fined. Nobody messes with the French lunch hour.
In our Port de Plaisance, all work must cease. If you are sanding away old paint or power-washing the deck, you must stop.
It’s not just humans that get a lunch hour. If you are on the waterways, you will likely have to stop. All locks – even those that are fully automated and don’t have a lock-keeper – close for lunch. That red light will stay on until lunch hour is over.
Lunch hour is a misleading term. It is rarely limited to just one hour. In fact, noon to 2pm is more often the rule than the exception.
Remember lunch hour is for the workers – be they staff or owners. It means you do not walk in at five minutes before noon and expect to be served. The lights will go off and the door will be locked at noon on the dot. Pity any customer still inside.
I was totally unprepared for one noon-hour closing.
Parking meters stop counting down over the noon hour. As you can see in the sign above, no need to pay between noon and 2pm. Nor after 7pm. Pay for one hour at 11:30am and you’ll find you still have a half-hour left on the meter starting at 2pm. Better still, put enough money in the meter to take you past 7pm, and it won’t start to count down until the next morning. Pay for two hours at midnight and you won’t have to worry about it until 11 the next morning. Even then, you won’t have to go outside as you can top up the meter by phone.