Video: "Les chassés-croisés du mois d'août"

In early August, France experiences a phenomenon closely tied to its vacation culture: les chassés-croisés du mois d’août. This term refers to the massive traffic jams caused by the overlap of vacationers leaving for their holidays and others returning home. The result is a joyful, often sweltering, and chaotic scene that resembles a dance move—the chassé-croisé—in which dancers gracefully pass one another.

I explained it all in French (with illustrations!) in a video in 2020. Enjoy!