The Cherry on the Top!

It's Paris. There are many little (and big) frustrations, but overall, we're loving being here. It feels like a privilege to have this experience, so I really don't want to complain... Please, consider these next few posts as a description of our adjustment to French life rather than a whinging session!

Everything is complicated - even simple things like buying chickens and even cherries! I was passing a fruit shop one day.

Everything looked delicious. I filled my shopping bag. Later at home, I re-examined the bill and discovered that the fruit had come to a total of €42.66! The cherries alone had cost
€16.72 just for a wee punnet. (Okay, the dattes, (dates) were expensive too - I was expecting that.)

I remembered that the cherries had said "4€99." Obviously the cashier had typed an extra zero when typing in the price...right?

So, armed with the French vocabulary to say, ever so politely, "I think you've made a mistake and overcharged me..." I headed back to the shop. But to my horror, I realized when I saw the sign close up that, in fact, the cherries really were that price.

They were €49.90 per kilo.

Now, I don't know about you but wasn't that sign somewhat misleading? Wouldn't you think you were getting a punnet of cherries for €4.99?

However, as a French friend did point out, it's not exactly cherry season. These cherries have come all the way from Chile, and judging by their price, flew first class on Air France!

I suppose it pays to read the small print. Quite a task when it's in scribbles that are half rubbed off the chalk board and in French.

Oh well, you win some, you get robbed some. They did taste good and sure isn't that the main thing (even if we are broke now!)

Byddi Lee