Here in France they are a religion. A perfect excuse to do sweet f-a for a whole day. Obviously the best day for a bank holiday is a Monday, and - strangely - it's often the case. But the French are clever, especially when it has to do with missing work : the second best-day is Thursday. Why Thursday? A random, generally boring day that's not quite in the middle of the week? Because then you can apply the golden rule in French holidays : le pont.
Basically, it means that if there is only one day between a bank holiday and the weekend... Well yes, you got it, you just don't show up. And don't get me wrong, it is very nearly institutionnalized, most of the time the boss decides to do it and then of course the employees feel that they should follow the lead. Pont meaning 'bridge', it is a sort of pathway from one work-free day to another, resulting in a nice 4-day-long 'weekend'. Of course, absolutely everything is closed so you just have to lounge about at home and chill, although generally it is an excuse to have 'lovely' family time (and family lunches that last nearly as long as the whole weekend, joy).
I, for one, enjoy being off school/work as much as anyone, especially during college when we had sports on Mondays, but I cannot stand the idea of not being able to go out or do anything. Oh and the roads are completely unpracticable, expect ginormous traffics jams on the morning of the first day and the evening of the last. And people generally need another weekend to recover. Cue Edith Piaf's singing the country's true motto, 'Je ne veux pas travailler'.
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