See you in September!

The Food Section’s summer break starts tomorrow

The idea that Europeans don’t work in August is largely an American fantasy, much like dreamy notions of Spaniards taking daily two-hour naps and French eaters shunning supermarket bread. With inflation and summer temperatures on the rise, plenty of Europeans now prefer to take their government-mandated paid vacation in April.

(That’s assuming they can afford to leave home: The European Union in June reported that 29 percent of its citizens aren’t in a financial position to travel for one week.)