After several months in France, I am more used to French culture and customs. However, the first weeks were full of misunderstandings and slightly awkward interactions. Our first weekend in France, my friend and I decided that we wanted to go into town to find a cafe, tea salon, or restaurant to eat and do a bit of work. We decided to meet at Esquirol square downtown. I waited for the bus for several minutes because they don’t arrive at the same frequency on Sunday as they do during the week, but I arrived in town around noon, ready for lunch.
My friend and I had the addresses of a few cafes near Esquirol that looked good on Yelp or were recommended by students from past semesters, so we chose one and headed over. Unfortunately, when we arrived at the cafe, it was closed. I was a bit disappointed but we had the names and addresses of a few others and instead of giving up on our dream, we persevered. We didn’t have luck at the second cafe either as it was closed until 2pm, so we went to a tea salon just around the corner instead. It was incredibly crowded, so we were happy to have found a place to eat and work that wasn’t closed!
We went in and I asked, with my beautiful American accent, “Do you still have spots available for lunch?” The host looked at me with confusion before saying, “And do you have a reservation miss?” No, I responded that we didn’t have one, but we could wait. Unfortunately the host informed us that the tea salon was fully booked for the rest of the day.
We thanked him and went back onto the quiet street, thinking that if most restaurants were closed on Sunday it made sense that the tea salons would be packed. We finally decided to work for a bit in MacDonald’s (which is much nicer than in the US) because there would undoubtedly be space there.
For me, the fact that restaurants are closed on Sunday wasn’t completely unexpected but I was still surprised to see to what degree Toulouse shuts down. It’s undoubtedly linked to France’s catholic heritage which is still relatively strong among the French despite the fact that France is a secular country. In any case, after that first weekend I am much more conscious of French hours because they are very different than those in the United States!
-Claire Gambee