A cold way to shop

There are so many different things I have had to get used to, moving to Paris.


For one is the customer service, or lack thereof. After going every week to the bank to beg for the PIN code for my bank card, I still have yet to receive it. For another is the way the French shop.


Mondays are awful for shopping, which I learnt to my detriment early on when, after the weekend, I left to replenish my cupboards, went to visit three supermarkets within walking distance, to find them resolutely closed.


The French also, despite the bountiful resource of beautiful fresh foods, have succumbed to the lure of frozen foods, for reasons of convenience and short prep time.


One chain which I have been seeing around the city is Picard. A store selling nothing but frozen foods! Which to me is quite unusual. It is odd to see people in Picard, heads down as if in thought but in reality looking into the depths of each of the freezers, trying to think of dishes for the week. The decor is sparse and white to mimic, I imagine, the insides of a freezer.


Sad to say, despite my luxury of time, I too have ventured into the depths of the frozen world, plucked out frozen gaspacho (which the boy adored), little frozen sticks of vegetables, ice creams and of course, one of my all time favorites, frozen raspberries to be eaten straight from the freezer on hot, hot days.