Gratitude Monday: day-to-day

Huh. My second Gratitude Monday on this trip to France.

May sound trivial, but I’m grateful that I have so far managed my way through quotidian French life. Like buying a train ticket from Arles to Avignon at an automated kiosk. Believe me—it’s not at all the same thing as doing it online; even that had its challenges.

(My Lyon-to-Arles trip could have been TGV, but I somehow went local. It took me nearly three hours to go 300km; about twice the time the journey from Paris to Lyon, which is 465km. However, I was not in any particular hurry, and rather enjoyed the puddle-jumper.)

I also successfully bought a bottle of Perrier and some butter biscuits at the Monoprix around the corner from my hotel here in Avignon. It was self-checkout, and I did require the intervention twice of someone behind me to point out that I’d put the Perrier in the wrong place after scanning, and then that I had to cancel out of the EnterYourPIN part of the transaction. But, tbh, this was not markedly more palaver than I encounter when I tried (once) the self-checkout at Wegmans, which is why I will not use them.

So, I looked almost like a local. A somewhat backward doofus local. I can be grateful for that.

I’m also grateful that “kir royale” needs no translation, as it’s my quotidian go-to apéritif. Viz:

To clarify, the third-to-last is made with peach liqueur, next-to-last with blueberry liqueur and the last is actually plain kir, as the restaurant doesn't serve champagne. 

Still grateful.