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How France will mark May 1st under lockdown

Today marks May 1st and although the concept of a day off work is now purely theoretical to many people, France will be doing its best to put on a traditional May Day while under lockdown.

Published: 27 April 2020 15:57 CEST
Updated: 1 May 2020 07:05 CEST
How France will mark May 1st under lockdown
May 1st will look a little different this year. Photo: AFP

May 1st is usually a big holiday in the nation's calendar, but this year things will be a little different.

Public holiday

May 1st falls on a Friday this year so most people get a day off work, although that is a largely theoretical concept to the millions of people unable to work due to the lockdown.

French bank holidays are taken on whichever day they happen to fall on the calendar meaning that in 2021 and 2022 May 1st falls on a weekend and therefore doesn't mean an extra day off.

To really rub salt into that wound the same also applies to May 8th, which is usually a public holiday in France to mark the end of World War II in Europe. 

Social distancing rules mean that this type of protest will not be possible this year. Photo: AFP

Protests

Also known as the Fête du Travail, or Labour Day, May 1st is usually a day of widespread union-organised demonstrations.

Although protests and demos seem quintessentially French, this tradition is actually borrowed from the USA and a huge strike in Chicago in 1886.

On May 1st, 35,000 workers walked out of their jobs, joined by tens of thousands more in the next couple days, leading a national movement for an eight-hour work day. 

Three years later, France decided to establish an “International Workers' Day” with the same goal, but it didn't officially become a paid day off until 1941 under the Vichy regime.

This year street demos are obviously out, but unions are still keen to mark the day and have instead invited people to demonstrate on their balconies.

 

The theme of the protests is the 'forgotten workers' – the low-paid but essential workers who have kept the country running during the weeks of lockdown.

The lily-of-the-valley is the traditional May Day flower. Photo: AFP

Flowers

But it's not all protests, some people mark the day with flowers.

On the first of May in 1561, France's King Charles IX was given a muguet flower, or lily-of-the valley in English, as a lucky charm and liked it so much that he decided to offer them each year to the ladies of the court.

They're usually sold in florists on by street sellers, neither of which will be possible this year.

However the country's agriculture minister Didier Guillaume has moved to reassure people that they will still be able to get a May Day muguet – this year they will be available in supermarkets and other 'essential' stores that are allowed to remain open during the lockdown.

He has also called on people to buy them to show solidarity with under-pressure French growers.

 

Fête de la Terre

In medieval France, this time was a celebration of the season rather than of the workers. 

A feast would be hosted for three days in celebration, during which time musical parades would take place with people dancing and riding mules adorned with ribbons through the villages, to an enormous banquet.

This tradition is best preserved in rural areas of France, such as the mountainous department of Isère, or the south west town of Cahors, where the weekend surrounding the 1st is usually one of celebration, using it as an excuse to come together and enjoy the good weather, with parades and markets of regional products.

Sadly this won't be possible this year, and the far right political party Rassemblement National's usual May 1st 'patriotic banquet' won't be happening either.

The tree of May

This is one of the more quirky May Day traditions and involves young men in some parts of France cutting down a tree during the night between the 30th of April and May 1st and then replanting it by the door of the woman they hoped to marry.

Other versions of this tradition saw the May tree placed in front of a church or at the home of a newlywed couple.

It was pretty much a historical relic anyway and we're not sure which box you would tick on the lockdown permission form to cover tree-related courting rituals.

 

 

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TRAVEL NEWS

What’s the deal with passport stamping in France?

There are clear guidelines in place about who should have their passport stamped when they enter or leave France - but the letter of the law doesn't always seem to be applied on the ground. Here's what you need to know.

Published: 17 May 2024 14:24 CEST
What's the deal with passport stamping in France?

When you pass through a French border control post, officers will check your passport and – in some cases – stamp the date of your entry or exit of the country onto one of the blank pages in the booklet.

Although the system should be clear and simple, it becomes complicated when conflicting information is given on the ground.

Here’s what the rules say, and whether it’s really a problem if your passport is incorrectly stamped.

Who should be stamped?

The purpose of the date stamps for entry and exit is to calculate how long you have been in France, and therefore whether you have overstayed your allowed time – whether that is the time allowed by a short-stay Schengen visa or the visa-free 90-day allowance that certain non-EU nationals benefit from. 

Those people who are exempt from 90-day restrictions should therefore not have their passports stamped.

EU passport – people who have an EU passport should not have it stamped, because they have the right to unlimited stays due to EU freedom of movement.

Dual nationals – people who have passports of both EU and non-EU countries should not be stamped when they are travelling on their EU passport. However, because the passports of dual nationals are not ‘linked’, those travelling on their non-EU passports will be stamped, unless they have other proof of residency.

READ ALSO What are the rules for dual-nationals travelling in France?

French residents – the passports of non-EU citizens who have a residency permit in France (carte de séjour) should not be stamped, because they have the right to stay in France for as long as their permit is valid.

Visa holders – people who have a long-stay visa or a short-stay visitor visa should not be stamped, because they have the right to stay in France for as long as their visa is valid. 

Tourists/visitors – people making short visits to France who do not have a visa should be stamped, with the stamps keeping track of their 90-day allowance. Visitors from nationalities who do not benefit from the 90-day rule (eg Indians) are also stamped.

Travel practicalities

When crossing a French border, you should present your passport along with other documents – visa or carte de séjour – if relevant. Don’t wait for border guards to ask whether you are a resident.

It should be noted that the carte de séjour is not a travel document and cannot be used to cross borders, not even internal Schengen zone borders. The only valid travel documents for entering France are a passport or national ID card. Any other forms of ID – driving licence, residency card etc – cannot be used for travel purposes.

Border problems

While the rules on stamping are simple in theory, many readers of The Local have reported having their passports incorrectly stamped at the border, and this seems to be a particular problem for non-EU nationals who are resident in France.

Travellers are also often given incorrect information by border guards – for example being told that only holders of the post-Brexit Article 50 TUE carte de séjour are exempt from stamping, that all non-EU nationals must have their passports stamped or that only being married to a French national exempts you from stamping.

None of these are correct.

It’s also sometimes the case that people whose passports should be stamped – tourists, visitors and second-home owners who don’t have a visa – do not receive the stamp. For frequent visitors this can be a problem because it looks as though they have had a long stay in France, due to their exit not being recorded.

The system of stamping itself is also a bit haphazard with stamps scattered throughout the passport book in random order, so border guards sometimes make mistakes and miss an entry or exit stamp and therefore think that people have overstayed when they haven’t.

So how much of a problem actually is it if your passport is wrongly stamped?

It’s one thing to know the rules yourself, it’s quite another to have an argument with a border guard, in French, when a long queue is building behind you. Numerous Local readers have reported feeling that they had no choice but to accept a stamp when an implacable guard insisted upon it.

But is this really a problem?

One thing is clear – if you are a resident of France then you have the right to re-enter, and your proof of residency (visa or carte de séjour) takes precedence over any passport stamps. So it’s not a question of being barred from the country – it can, however, be inconvenient as it might lead to delays at the border while your passport record is queried.

Meanwhile people who did not receive correct exit stamps can be incorrectly told that they have over-stayed and even be liable for a fine. 

Will the new EES passport control system improve this?

Theoretically, the EU’s new Entry & Exit System – which does away with the manual stamping of passports – should get rid of these problems.

However, as we have seen, theory and what actually happens on the ground are two different things.

The EES system, due to come into effect later this year, brings in two main changes – it makes passport checks more secure by adding diometric data such as fingerprints and facial scans and it does away with manual stamping of passports and replaces it with scans which automatically calculate how long people have been in France.

You can read full details of how it works HERE. 

So that should eliminate the problems of unclear stamps, stamps being read wrongly or passports not getting the stamps they need.

Residents in France – carte de séjour and visa holders – are not required to complete EES checks and should have a separate system at ports, airports and railway terminals.

However, at present it’s pretty common for border guards to give incorrect information to non-EU residents who are resident in the EU – let’s hope that they are properly briefed before EES is deployed.

Have you had problems with passports being incorrectly stamped? Please share your experiences in the comments section below

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