“It was horrible, absolutely horrible!” – Issy’s words describing her first Saturday morning shopping experience in France after nine years.
Because she starts work on Monday and I won’t have access to a car, we needed to do a big food shop to last us the whole of next week. We therefore decided to go to the big LeClerc supermarket about 10 minutes away. Like a lot of Supermarkets here, the main food hall is surrounded by a number of other smaller shops to form an out of town mini-shopping centre.
We got there just after the 9am opening and noticed there were already cues at the tills. We, of course, were already at a disadvantage because we didn’t know where anything was and a lot of the brands and food selections have changed since 2000. So by the time we had formulated our strategy the aisles were already full of very serious looking French people all with a mission to get in and out as soon as possible. In particular the centre aisle that, in the end, was a bit like driving around the Arc De Triomphe, you just had to close your eyes and go, hoping that you didn’t hit anyone or that Luca or Elliot didn’t get swept away by the tide!
At the start I was the very polite Englishman saying ‘Excusé moi and merci’ etc. but must admit to loosing my rag and saying ‘get out of my way’ to one old lady by the end of it. This was at about the same time as, for some reason, Elliot decided to try and blow a raspberry on a woman’s bottom! I tried shrugging and saying sorry, but I don’t think it was really enough!
After a while, because we had the two kids with us, we decided to split up. Me waiting with the boys in one area and Issy running around getting our stash! I found sanctuary in an aisle called ‘product of the world’ in which I found Cadbury’s chocolate, Ginger biscuits, Marmite and Baked Beans… I think we will come back!
Overall I think the supermarkets here have a bigger range of products but are probably more expensive than in the UK. We finally waited 10 minutes in line for the till and by the time we had got out, it was 11.30am, Luca had fallen asleep and I had used the old ‘eat these crisps and shut up’ trick with Elliot.
Apart from DIY outlets, shops are not open on Sundays here, so everyone either has to go in the evenings or obviously Saturdays. I think next time I will have to try and do the food shop on my own, one evening, once Issy has got back from work. Hopefully it will be easier, if, of course, they have clear pictures on the packaging!
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