Paul from Paris

“Enjoy a positive mental attitude in a time faced with darkness.”

David Malek wrote that. He’s an American artist, whose work is now on display in Paris, at the southwestern corner of the place de la Madeleine.

Malek’s work isn’t in a gallery; it’s outdoors, where it camouflages a construction site.

The Cerruti boutique is renovating the premises, and chose Malek’s work to cover up what’s going on indoors.

For this moment of art in the heart of the city: thank you Cerruti, and thank you David Malek.

Louis XVI in 1775

King's trial

On 21 January 1793, Louis XVI was put to death, by guillotine, in Paris. He was 38.

Technically, he was no longer king, royalty having been abolished on 21 September 1792. The offenses for which he was executed were conspiracy against public liberty and general state security.

The execution took place on the place de la Concorde (then named the place de la Révolution, formerly named the place Louis XV). From contemporaneous engravings, we can form an idea of the scene: a public execution, in plain view, with many soldiers pressing close around the guillotine.

Vestiges of this day are still visible in Paris, often in unexpected places.

Anyone who has visited Paris will remember the giant Egyptian obelisk that now dominates the place de la Concorde. The obelisk sits on a pedestal, but the pedestal was not always meant for the obelisk: back in 1826, French king Charles X –Louis XVI’s younger brother– planned for it to support a monument to the memory of Louis XVI.

In the 8th arrondissement, not far from the gare St Lazare, there is a small park: the square Louis XVI. I’d been past it many times before I asked what a small building in it was. I learned that the park formerly had been a cemetery, that Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette had been interred there during the revolution (today, their remains lie in St Denis, with those of other French monarchs), and that the small building was a chapel: an expiatory chapel. This is the only expiatory chapel I’ve ever seen anywhere; not surprisingly, it was built during the 19th-century restoration, when Louis XVI’s execution was considered worthy of expiation. Today, it’s a state-owned monument that you can visit, although there’s an unfortunate €5 fee.

My favorite vestige of the execution of Louis XVI is also the best-hidden, and it may be just an urban legend.

On the rue de Beauregard –a small street off the beaten path, in the Paris garment district– a municipal plaque is affixed to a building, at a height slightly above that of the average person. It reads (in French): “Here Baron Batz and his friends tried to help Louis XVI escape on the morning of 21 January 1793″.

An escape? An attempted escape? On the day of the execution? What did the baron and his friends do? Why didn’t the attempt work? The plaque provokes all sorts of questions but answers none.

Baron Batz was a colorful fellow, gifted in matters of high finance and a fast friend of the king. His plan apparently was to rescue Louis XVI on the day of his execution, as his carriage made its way from the prison to the guillotine. Aware that the carriage would be guarded by armed men, the baron had rounded up a few hundred hard-core royalist supporters. Ever the optimist, the baron had also found a safe house, where Louis XVI could avoid detection. On the appointed day, the hundreds of royalists did not show up at the rendez-vous, either because revolutionaries had unwound the plot, or because the venture was a product of the baron’s imagination. True or not, the story deserves to be made into a major motion picture.

The number of business creations increased in 2009 in France; but so did the number of business bankruptcies.

Business creations grew

According to French statistical agency INSEE, 580 193 new businesses were set up in France during 2009. By comparison, 327 000 new businesses were created in 2008.

What accounts for this 75% jump in one year? Mostly a new measure in favor of self-employed business people –who in French are oddly termed “auto-entrepreneurs“– which spurred 320 000 new business start-ups in 2009. (Auto-entrepreneurs can have employees, but most don’t.)

What did the French do to spark self-employment? They reduced the paperwork burden for new business creation. They also permitted small businesses to pay flat taxes and social security contributions, which represents a huge advance over an otherwise opaque system. (The opacity results from having to deal with many institutions –none of which seem to have heard of the Internet– and from a lag between filing returns and making payments.)

From data collected by APCE (the French association for business creation), some sectors saw growth of more than 100% over the prior year: arts and recreation, education, communications, and personal services. Five regions generated new-business creation growth in excess of 85% over the prior year: Poitou-Charentes, Basse Normandie, Centre, Bourgogne, and Franche-Comté.

Bankruptcies also increased

According to Altares, a Dun & Bradstreet group company, 63 000 French businesses declared bankruptcy in 2009, an increase of 11.4% over 2008.

The Altares report counted as “bankruptcies” court decisions to begin bankruptcy proceedings: reorganizations and liquidations.

This is a good sign of insolvency –inability to make payments as they come due– but does not explain what ultimately happens to the business. Are distressed French businesses reorganizing, then rebounding? The evidence is not encouraging: the proportion of businesses that filed for liquidation grew relative to those that sought reorganization. In all, 68% of new proceedings were for liquidations. French debtors apparently believe their businesses cannot be salvaged, either because circumstances are too grim or because court protection is sought as a last resort, after a business has substantially failed.

Some French regions suffer more business bankruptcies than others: the west of France, Alsace, and the Rhône-Alpes. Basse-Normandie and Poitou-Charentes are alike in that both regions have high growth in business creation and business bankruptcy.

Ten years ago today, France adopted a 35-hour work week. How has this changed life in France?

Most workers actually work 35 hours a week. 60% of full-time workers actually work 35 hours per week, as the law prescribes. But the prescription is not a limit: overtime is permitted. 30% of full-time workers put in overtime, totaling in the course of the year an additional 70 hours. 10% of full-time workers fall outside the scope of the law and tend to work more than 35 hours a week.

Beneficiaries of the 35-hour work week are happy. Opinion polls show that a majority of workers –whether blue-collar or white-collar– are happy with the 35-hour system; they don’t want to change.

Workerss who do not have a 35-hour work week express discontent. When opinion polls reveal discontent with the 35-hour work week, the negative opinion tends to come from workers who, in practice, do not enjoy a 35-hour work week. Some professional categories are exempted or excluded from the 35-hour work week: small-business owners, plumbers, dentists. Some people who theoretically benefit from the law do not in practice. This is the case of some clerical staff (who start early and end late but have a 2 1/2 hour lunch break) and is especially true for workers in construction, restaurants, and hospitals, for whom overtime sometimes is not fully recorded or paid. Finally, some part-time workers, who may work 30 hours per week, would prefer the additional earnings and benefits of a full-time position.

French people do not work less than their neighbors. In 2007, the average full-time French worker worked 1559 hours, which is more than the average Dutch or German worker. French workers have also demonstrated productivity gains, doing more in fewer hours.

The 35-hour work week is not a utopian scheme. Some on the left promoted the 35-hour work week as a cure for unemployment, reasoning that jobs would be shared among more workers. This has not happened, and France remains plagued by high unemployment. Some on the right feared paralyzing regulation of business. This also has not happened. Business in France already was highly regulated. For managers, the 35-hour work week increased the cost of overtime. Large employers responded by increasing the HR department’s authority in scheduling matters, to limit overtime. Some employers redefined jobs to avoid the 35-hour work week. Where the 35-hour work week is difficult to apply –in restaurants or hospitals, or in construction– there seems to be widespread tacit agreement not to apply strictly the letter of the law.

The 35-hour work week is good policy. A legislated work week, applicable by default, arguably makes sense as social policy. Given opinion poll results, it looks like the outcome that most workers would like to reach; however, it would be difficult to negotiate individually. Public action makes possible private preferences. (I’d be happy to give credit where credit is due, but can’t find to whom this point should attributed.)

In France, winter sales matter. They’re considered newsworthy. They lead consumers to make  excursions and purchases they otherwise would not have made.

The premise behind most sales is a significant markdown from ordinary prices. As explained in an earlier post, the philosophy behind French sales is to clear out inventory.

Some merchants seem to play by other rules. A reader alerted me to an unusual practice at the Paris flagship store of ETAM, a mass-market lingerie and loungewear retailer. Among products grouped by type and color, matched sets (for example, a bra and panty set, or a pyjama top and bottom) were priced differently: one part was on sale at a reduced price (for example, the top was 30% off), but the other part was not (for example, the bottom was full price).

I wanted to understand the retailer’s motivation. If most customers buy both parts of a set, the actual discount for the whole is less than the discount of the part (and, of course, much less than if the two parts were discounted in the same way). Certainly customers will notice this, if only at check-out. The one who wrote me did, and was not happy.

I was puzzled, because some retailers don’t participate in the winter sales, or do so in a token way. Examples that come to my mind –Ikea, Zara, Darty– stress everyday low prices or low-price guarantees; they’ve already made a case on the basis of price, and they stress other attributes: design, frequent new product deliveries, after-sales service. Nothing compelled Etam to halfheartedly participate in sales.

My puzzlement remains. In Etam’s case, I was not able to find the name of a real person in charge of customer, press, or public relations. A message left through an institutional e-mail service went unanswered.