Oh, it's the 'French Labour Day.' That explains it

From the blog of an American who recently moved to Paris:

Eric and I went to buy a shower curtain at BHV this morning only to discover that the store was closed. Stores are usually open on Saturday, so this was a little unusual. There was a sign on the door indicating that the store would be closed on Saturday May 1st, but it did not indicate for what reason. As a matter of fact, it pretty much appeared that almost every store was closed.

We decided we would just walk home, because it was such a beautiful day. At one of the street corners, we noticed a man selling some sprigs of little white flowers. Many people were buying them from him and Eric remarked that he had seen several people on the metro with the same flowers. I decided we should buy some of the flowers and ask they guy what the story was.

Unfortunately, our flower salesman did not have a great story behind the flowers. He just said something about them always being sold today. And then there was some mention of Labour Day. Well, I didn't want to tell him that he was about four months early for that.

My first reaction is to think, What a dumbass! Doesn't he realize that May 1 is a worldwide workers' holiday and that the American Labor Day is a bullshit substitute?

Then I realized the answer is no, he doesn't realize it. Even after it's explained to him, he thinks it's "French Labour Day." That's how bad American education is.