Renovation project - It's august, France is closed for the holidays

Renovation project - It's august, France is closed for the holidays

Photo - Sylvain Naudin

John is still no better, his abscess is getting more uncomfortable and the anti biotics he had have made no difference. We need to see a dentist. I telephone to make an appointment but the dentist is closed for summer holidays, no problem there is a new dentist in our village, I pop down to find that closed also. We ring a friend and ask if they can give us the number to their dentist, we ring and they are closed until September.

We sit there and wonder what to do, he really needs to see somebody we consider going to the doctor but the last time they gave anti biotics that did not work, we are left with no choice but to visit the urgencies in Morlaix (this is the emergency department)

We arrive and book in and I spend ages trying to describe the word bridge in French I had forgotten to Google this before we left, eventually I just say bridge and I receive the reply  “ah bridge” they knew exactly what I meant.

We go through to the doctor and explain again, he looks at John’s mouth and agrees he needs to see the dentist but unfortunately the emergency dentist at Morlaix hospital is also on holiday for august, so he gives us the details for Brest hospital.

Brest is our local big city. The hospital there is a university hospital so we know there will be a dentist available.

But we cannot go until tomorrow, so we leave with another prescription for stronger antibiotics and pain killers.

Our biggest top tip on this is do not get a tooth ache in France in August!

This is actually one of the things we love about rural France, people work to live not live to work,

It is August; we are going to go on holiday!

But it is not just the dentist that is on holiday in August it is virtually everything, if you come to live here do not expect much of anything during August other than to enjoy your life, the sun is shining and it is almost impossible to get any work done or complete anything but hey, there is wine and sun shine and the living is easy, after all that is why most of us are here and it really isn’t a problem normally, just when you happen to get a surprise toothache