This is the start of the long weekend here. Note: that means nothing much is open, so I needed to go shopping, and buy some essentials. Naturally things are really crowded as everyone tries to buy stuff on the way home from work. This would always be a test of my minimal French vocab. Problem 1. They have problems with the till, so credit/debit card only. Problem 2. None of my cards worked. (“Anglais carte” with some disgust was heard). This meant trying to pickup everything and find a working till for a cash transaction. I’m not popular with the other people in the queue. The cashiers were nice and understanding though.

Getting some incidentals in another shop I thought I was doing fine. I thought I got all of the etiquette right, I was getting by with my CD learned shopping phrases. Then I get something unintelligible. She repeats it a couple of different ways, then “No you don’t have one!”. Only then did I realise she was asking about a store loyalty card.