French man fined for refusing to take a day off

Cedric Vaivre being censured for keeping his bakery open seven days a week

Boulangerie du Lac is the only bakery in the town of Lusigny-sur-Barse (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

A French baker was fined €3,000 (£2,650) for working too hard after he kept his bakery open seven days a week during the summer of 2017.

Cedric Vaivre, 41, broke the country's labour rules by keeping the only bakery in the town of Lusigny-sur-Barse open to serve tourists.

Locals and Christian Branle, the town's mayor, have defended the owner of Boulangerie du Lac.

"In a tourist area, it seems essential that we can have businesses open every day during the summer," Mr Branle told L'Est Eclair. "There is nothing worse than closed shops when there are tourists."

Mr Vaivre is yet to pay his fine in the hopes it will be lowered or cancelled.

Nearly 2,500 people have signed a petition supporting him.

"You have to have some common sense, we are in an area where there is not a lot of competition... let people work if visitors expect the service," Mr Branle, the town's mayor, said in an interview with broadcaster 13 heures de TF1.

Two decrees in the local department dating from 1994 and 2000 ban bakeries from opening seven days a week.

While exceptions can be made and Mr Vaivre's bakery was exempt from the laws in 2016, the arrangement was not renewed last year.

In 2015, four other French bakers were also fined for opening every day of the week.