For the first in our summer season of stories exploring the way society holidays, we explore Henri Cartier-Bresson’s documentation of the first paid holidays for French workers in 1936,

Before 1936, only professionals, rentiers, and traders took holidays in France. Most workers, paid by the hour every fifteen days, only rested on Sundays, and did not get paid if they did not work. However, general strikes for better working conditions helped the election of the left wing alliance, headed by Léon Blum and known as the ‘Front Populaire’ (Popular Front), in May of that year. The strikes ended after the announcement in June of reforms, including two-week annual paid holidays.