« (...) both France and the United States are rich countries. The United States grew more rapidly than France in the 1990s after four decades in which the opposite was true. GDP per head in the USA is about 20 per cent higher than in France, but French working hours are 20 per cent shorter than in the USA, so that hourly output is much the same in the two countries. From a statistical perspective, the difference between the two countries is that the French take lunch, and five weeks' holiday».

John Kay, The Truth About Markets, p.328-9