That's not at all how it works. This is completely absurd. First, you need to plan your days off. So in reality, you will work 40hrs 1 week and 32 the next one

That's not at all how it works. This is completely absurd. First, you need to plan your days off. So in reality, you will work 40hrs 1 week and 32 the next one for instance. Secondly, when you have a certain status (called "cadre"), you are actually giving away the exact count number of hours for a number of days of work. Those work days can be (but not necessarily all the time) more than 8 hours. Actually, any work days is usually more than 8 hours because, like the previous poster says, we take a long break for lunch and that's not part of the hours. Finally, Americans always have this idea that the French are super strict with their hours, but that's true only in jobs where they are actually clocked by the hour. There a many job where it's not the case and someone committed won't mind staying a few hours extra a week if it means having the job well-done. In contrast, I've been working in the Netherlands for 6 years now, and I see this behavior much more often : after having stayed the mandatory 8.5 hours (30 minutes lunch break), the person will leave, no matter what.