Baguettes and Water!?!

01/10/2012

Bonjour mes amis!

I hope you had an enjoyable weekend!  I particularly enjoy the weekends here in France because then Dr. J, Jewel Jr. and I get to explore and have fun in France!  More on that subject another day!

Everyone knows that France is known for it's excellent food and wine...makes it even easier for us to live here...but honestly, we could probably live on this alone...

or even this...

 
Alas, if we could just live on baguettes and water, it would only mean a quick daily trip to one of our favorite places.  The one below is Jewel Jr.'s favorite.

That's a Bakery/Pastry Shop for anyone who didn't know!

...but Jewel Jr. is particularly fond of this...

(...and this is a SMALL display of Nutella in one of the grocery stores.  We've seen larger!)

...so it's off to the grocery store to feed my family...

Today, I'd like to tell you a little bit about my adventure last week...I drove our car and went to the grocery store all by myself!  Now, some of you are probably laughing, thinking, so how hard is that?  Well, when you see what I have to do to handle a trip to the grocery store, you'll see that it becomes a couple hour event, in part because I have to translate labels on products in the store, but also, because it's an ordeal just to get in and out of our parking garage!

Just picture this...

I've managed to get out of the parking garage,

drive the 10 minutes to the store,

used my special coin to get my grocery cart,

spent an hour looking through the store for all the things I need,

asked in French for some help in the produce aisle,

(...because I have no idea what garlic is in French!),

put all the groceries on the conveyor belt,

loaded all my groceries into my cart,

loaded them into the car,

returned my cart,

navigated back home via roundabouts and lights and curves with our manual shift car,

and then return to the dungeon parking garage...

Here's some shots as I return home...

The first door to get open!  Oh good!  It's open already!

Then, I must swipe a card on the center box there, to get the next door to open!

Okay, good.  That one's open now!

 Sorry for the bad pictures, but this wasn't our good camera AND the windshield is dirty!

Then, we swipe the card again (forgot to take a picture of that box) to get this gate to open.  Yay!  I got it!

See the red knob?  That's what we press when we want to open the gate from the other side!  Whew!

...and finally, we back the car in!  I think I did a pretty good job!

Okay, if you're still with me...we're not done yet.  We have to bring the groceries up to the apartment!

Ready? First we have to unlock a door...

Then, go through a 2nd door, and retrieve a grocery cart...

Then, fill the cart with the groceries we've just bought...

Then...

Unlock this door now and push the cart through...

Then, there's another door to open...

Then, we wait for the elevator...

Are you bored yet?  I quit taking pictures after this.  We literally take the grocery cart up in the elevator, wheel it into our apartment, remove the groceries, and then return the cart down to the -2 floor via the elevator!  Whew!  Are you tired?  I was.  I think I like walking to the store better, and carrying the groceries, but alas, I can't go everyday, so I will have to occasionally do this little trek.  Maybe it will get easier the more I do it!

Tomorrow I'll come back and tell you about some of the yummy food I made with the groceries I bought!

Have a jewel of a day!
Jan