The art of being late: Le quart d’heure vaudois

I love my French class. For a while, at the beginning of the year, I debated whether I should take French at all. My lab (and much of the EPFL, for that matter) functions completely in English, and the amount of time spent in a class (and doing the accompanying homework) could easily be applied towards more lab time, more experiments, and more results.  However, the more French classes I go to, the more I start looking forwards to Monday and Wednesday mornings, where I go sit in a tiny classroom with students, scientists, and EPFL faculty members from around the globe, and begin to learn the intricacies of French.

In addition to increasing my (tres petite) vocabulary and conjugating verbs, one of the things I love most about the class is our “culture time.” My French teacher is a Swiss native, and he believes that in addition to learning the language of the area we live in, it’s important for us to understand the culture as well. He always tries to sneak in little notes on Swiss culture, and often reserves 5-10 minutes of class time to answer our questions and inform us about the Swiss. 

Last week, as part of our culture time, we listed Swiss stereotypes we had (in French, of course) and discussed whether or not they were actually true. Some of them were:

1. Les Suisses adorent le chocolate (The Swiss love chocolate.)
This is very, very, very true. Even the tiniest of convenience stores will have at least an entire aisle devoted to chocolate. It’s amazing.

2. Les Suisses sont de l’heure (The Swiss are on time.)
This is true….sometimes.  In addition to being famed watchmakers, the Swiss have a reputation for always, always, always being on time. The rule is: Avant l’heure, c’est pas l’heure, après l’heure, c’est plus l’heure (Before the hour, it is not yet the hour; after the hour, it is no longer the hour.)  For the Swiss, punctuality is a point of national pride.

However, this stereotype isn’t really true for all of Switzerland. In fact, the region of Switzerland I live in, Le Vaud, has its own special brand of punctuality: Le quart d’heure vaudois.

Basically, as it was explained to me, in the canton of Vaud, it’s considered perfectly acceptable to be late—as long as you arrive within fifteen minutes of the starting time.  The rule holds for meetings, appointments, as well as social situations. In fact, for dinners and parties, especially when you are invited to someone’s home, it’s consider better—almost expected—to be exactly fifteen minutes late.  According to my French teacher, it’s a way for the Vaudois to thumb their noses at the national idea of on-the-dot timing, and carve out their own unique identity. 

switzerland. the canton vaud is highlighted in orange.
source.