The longer I live here, the more I cherish the French art of the holiday. This surely is their truest gift to civilisation at the start of the 21st century : the notion that not all boils down to grubbing your way up to the next pay bracket. I say that -- and in the next breath i will be the first to agree with all the right-wing liberals who say that France's biggest problem at the moment is the "devalorisation" of labour. Go figure. For most families with working parents, July and August are a challenge that is resolved in the first instance by the dispatch of children chez mamie et papi (grandparents) -- ideally in some nice rural retreat. Then in the second half of the vacances scolaires, the parents take their month, yes month, off. In France working adults are either juilletistes or aoutiens -- no measly fortnights here. The Schofield family is having to perform its annual scheduling jig. No grandparents anywhere near, so wife and I have to share out our holidays to look after offspring. Not ideal - but it means the children get out of paris for the whole two months, and we'll all be together in the second half of August -- Roll on!