La Rentrée

I spent a part of the summer holidays, in our family home in the South West of France, discovering old boxes full of precious family collections. While rifling through an old wooden box I found a stunning collection of old Paris Match magazines dating between 1950 and 1970!

I found this wonderful illustration from the 1960s which gently mocks the French tradition of holidays; Parisians stuck in endless traffic jams following their neighbours across the country to arrive back in Paris for La Rentrée.

There is no specific equivalent English word for 'rentrée'....a tradition so firmly French, best described as the start of the year - when we return from the long French holidays, refreshed and enthused to recommence work and for our children to start the new school year.

Oh, and thankfully now we have wonderful Autoroutes (motorways)!