Published
Collective leave“We leave with champagne, we come back with sausage”
For this family living in the south of the country, collective leave traditionally sounds the time for departure by car to Portugal.
“It’s tradition for twenty years. As soon as the collective leave period opens, we go to Portugal ”. Like many residents of Portuguese origin, Joao, Fatima and their children, Paulo, Beatriz and Thiago, are preparing to take the road, direction the South West.
“My husband works in the building,” explains Fatima. “He has been on leave since Thursday evening. As for me, I practice as a cleaning lady in the town of Dudelange, and I have to work until Friday, 8 p.m. We will start in stride ”. And their three children, however aged 25, 18 and 17 respectively, also accompany them by tradition. “Even the elder will be with us, which has not always been the case in recent years. He sometimes stayed in Luxembourg ”.
“We want to arrive as quickly as possible”
The family will set sail for Braga, in northern Portugal, not far from 2,000 km of road from the South Forge. “We have family there. And this trip is our annual visit, in a way, ”says the mother. “We travel in one go. We stop an hour or two when refueling. It’s always a bit of excitement and we want to arrive as quickly as possible. Even if we’ve already been sleeping one night to cut the journey in two, ”says Fatima.
The long journey by road is justified by financial reasons. “The plane is much more expensive, especially five! Only once, we returned by plane because we had an accident and the car was no longer usable. ”
“They are still impatiently waiting for chocolate”
But Joao, Fatima and their children will not land empty -handed in the Minho province. “We bring chocolate. This is tradition! They are still impatiently awaiting chocolate. We also bring champagne. And on the return, we do not fail to slide in our luggage of the dry sausage in the Braga region, a lot of fresh meat, bread. This is also why we do not stop along the way, with these perishable foodstuffs on board, ”revels in advance the resident.
Joao, Fatima and their offspring will not necessarily remain all the duration of collective leave, until August 17, in Portugal. “We have already done so in the past. But as I changed my job, going from private to the town of Dudelange, it is more complicated, because it depends on the organization of the holidays by our chief ”.
Are you already on WhatsApp?
Subscribe to our chain, activate the little one and you will receive a news recap every day in start of the evening.
