lunchtime wasted time.

I honestly like the long, leisurely lunch breaks in France. People usually SIT while they eat. They may even have a mutli-course meal. With wine! That's not to say that people don't eat on the go, but most people do actually take time to eat because eating in France is THAT important.

So when lunchtime is the only time of the day you can run your various errands, the French lunch break is really annoying. Since most stores close early (the supermarket near me is open until 9pm. Woo hoo! but closed on Sunday) and the other stores in the center close by 7pm, the lunch break is the only time to do those random things like getting buttons for the fireman raincoat that's been unworn for 5 months because it's missing a button or picking up a birthday present for a 4 year old or collecting the concert tickets for next week's concert (another woo hoo here please).

And being that it IS lunchtime and I'm not the ONLY one running such errands, you'd think that the stores would make an effort to open ALL of the cash registers, not just 2 of the 6. Maybe I'm being extremely unrealistic or maybe I'm just that American that I expect to be done with my errand after waiting in line for over 10 minutes, not walking away mumbling expletives under my breath having accomplished absolutely nothing.

In either case, I just wasted 45 minutes and have nothing to show for it except a bag of goldfish crackers, which are a nice consulation in these times of need (yes, I found actual goldfish crackers!)