All the jumping-for-joy pictures of successful Bac students have been published, schools are breaking up and the resorts are getting busier.
The great annual exodus from cooler corners of France - and indeed from numerous other less appealing parts of Europe to be in the summer - is under way.
On the continuation page, I offer a few thoughts and tips to people planning to join that great wave of sun-seekers and Francophiles.
Picture: UN Environment Programme
Already in southern France, there's the sinister familiarity of forest fires to remind us that the hot, dry season is back.
One fire in the Var, between La Motte and Roquebrune-sur-Argens, was apparently started by a carelessly tossed cigarette end; another, just controlled, caused 900 people to be forced out of their homes and reached the fringe of Antibes.
There'll always be cretins who enjoy starting fires deliberately. Sometimes in France, it turns out to be someone connected with the fire brigade, hard as it is to accet that evil thoughts would ever cross the minds of those lean, muscular sapeurs pompiers you see courageously focused when on duty, or keeping fit when not (football and jogging in the Tuileries, volleyball and jogging in Le Lavandou).
But it's worth reminding anyone prone to serious lapses of concentration that French law does not look with any great understanding on those who, even accidentally, set woodland ablaze.
The Med: a more reassuring sight
One report I saw helpfully gave the penalties for a fire caused negligently without intent: between two and five years in jail and a fine of roughly £20,000 to £70,000.
It looks even more draconian in French: Le chef d'incendie involontaire est passible de peines allant de deux ans de prison et 30.000 euros d'amende à 5 ans de prison et 100.000 euros d'amende.
But there other hazards that lie in store for the hordes about to descend on us.
Perhaps it would help if I listed a few random thoughts, if only as a minor public service for unsuspecting Anglo-Saxon visitors:
* Do not assume everyone speaks English. You will almost certainly enjoy your visit all the more if you have, and insist on using, some level of French. Conversely, do not be offended it someone replies in English; it's not intended as a put-down. They like to practise what they know.
* Realise that bad driving does happen. I have to steel myself to avoid writing too often about the Varois who refuse to use indicators, dangerously cut corners, become idiotically impatient when the driver in front needs to stop briefly but not illegally, drive the wrong way through the supermarket car park and generally park so badly that the whole town is paralysed for an hour. If I succeed, it's because I long ago came to the conclusion that the Brits are often no better.
* Expect to eat value-for-money meals in most restaurants - broadly speaking, especially when compared with Britain - but also be prepared to pay absurd mark-ups for your wine. If the budget is tight, stick to the carafe plonk most basic brasseries or similar are likely to offer.
* Consider coming off the autoroute for meal stops if you're making the long drive to Atlantic or Med coasts. Service stations are often quite good, but get horribly crowded in high season. You can honestly look back on a 30-minute detour that takes you to a snack-cum-quick-visit in, say Châteauneuf du Pape, as part of your holiday.
* Do not be shocked at having to shell out a lot of money on motorway tolls. The alternative, using the routes nationales, are a serious option only for those with an abundace of time.
* If you're coming in August, bear in mind that Paris is too. I have always preferred July holidays but Parisians plump en masse for August: the beaches and resorts are more crowded, tempers more frayed. Draw whatever conclusions you wish.
* Unless you have complicated needs - loads of kids, an aversion to sharing cavernous hotel rooms with the entire family, a fear of the unknown - try an overnight stop on the longer treks WITHOUT asking your tour operator/travel agent to book it in advance. In France, you are invariably charged per room, not per person. Avoid places that are too obviously staging posts - Beaune and Chalon-sur-Saône spring to mind, though there's ususally something to be had even there - and start looking by 5pm. You may find it so reasonably priced that you can treat yourself to a decent meal out.
* I discussed the last point more fully a year or so ago here, remembering in particular great decisions I made on different holidays to spend the night in St Emilion and on Mont St Michel.
* If in Brittany, remember to let me know how well their charm offensive, aimed at wooing back absent Brits, has worked. And get to the Festival Interceltique in Lorient - 2007 is the year of the Scots - if you happen to share my musical tastes and find yourself anywhere nearby from August 3-12.
* Wherever you are, remember that a French rare steak - saignant - is not the same as an English rare steak. It will barely have seen a frying pan. My recent à point - theoretically medium - that oozed blood at the least contact with a fork may have been an exception, but do take care when ordering. And, as Bill Taylor implied, be especially worried if it not only bleeds but moos.
* Try not to start forest fires.
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