An Occasional grumble can help?

To keep up with the objective of testing our ability (and capability) to actually live here, we are using Poitiers as a main base. This translates into at least two trips into town each week for internet access or any general shopping. The other day to day issues are invariably about time: something that most French people seem to have plenty of. It is perhaps the most difficult thing for us to deal with. Some supermarkets and almost all shops in towns up to the size of Poitiers (80k) close for at least 1 ½ hours over lunch. Including most boulangeries where we go hunting for the baguette. It is much cheaper to buy fuel at the bigger supermarkets but of course these also shut for lunch; here 2 ½ hours till 3 pm. You may not believe it but cheques are still very much in use here too. Nothing can make you happier to see the old timers finishing their usual chat with the check out chick and to then proceed to pull out the cheque book. Keep the supermarket queing system in action if nothing else.

Most museums and like attractions are also shut for lunch. On Mondays, towns up to and beyond the size of Poitiers are virtually empty and closed all day. So, you can think of starting the day slowly and getting into town around 10 am, take a slow coffee in the nice tabac/brasserie just on the main square of the town, followed by a visit to the local sights and then perhaps a quiet lunch in that attractive place you noticed or have read about. But what happens more often than not in our case is that you are just that bit late getting to the visit or activity you really want to do and are then left with having to mark time until 2 pm or later. This “problem” does not seem to worry rural/small France and perhaps the culture likes it that way. But it seems to us that things would run a lot better, more efficiently and bring in more tourist euros if people worked these things a little harder.