Yesterday my friend and I decided to go for a drive to France - just because we could. The border to France is only about 30 minutes away from our place so before too long we were driving past the little border control guys into a different country (something that is still a huge novelty for an Australian girl). We drove through the border town of St-Gingolph to a town called Évian-les-Bains (most of you would be familiar with the brand of water from there) where we parked the car and had a leisurely walk around the quiet town. It was around lunch time so the place was fairly quiet and a lot of the shops were shut. I'd been used to having warmish weather for the past couple of weeks and didn't arrive prepared for some chilly weather. My hands froze in the bitter, cold wind but before too long the sun showed it's big, round face and delighted us with a bit of it's lovely warmth.
After a walk around the town in search of somewhere that took Swiss Francs (we both forgot our stash of Euros) so we could find some lunch because both of our tummies were grumbling, we decided to go to a supermarket to buy some fresh bread and cheese to have a picnic by the lake. It was a rather chilly picnic but a nice one nonetheless. I was being eye-balled by the ever-so-cute Tobias (the dog) while I munched on my baguette. He's very hard to resist when he uses those magical "give me some food" eyes.
I was keen to find a warm place to defrost before we went back to the car so we carried on walking along the water front until we found a small cafe/pub/sports betting place to pop in for a quick coffee. My friend and I have this deal going where we take it in turns paying for the coffee and this time it was my turn. The small, fiery waitress came over and asked what we wanted, we asked for coffee and she returned with two identical cups of coffee (despite the fact that my friend and I asked for two different types of coffee) and plonked them on the table. It didn't smell very nice. I think I'm pretty spoilt for coffee now after sampling the goods in Italy and owning a Nespresso machine. I'm usually a less than one spoon of sugar type of coffee drinker but for me to get this one down, needed four. Possibly the worst coffee I have tasted. The only comfort that I had was after reading the price sign that said that it would cost only €1.45 - that was until I actually went up to the bar to pay for it. She handed me the bill and it was €5.20 for two coffees and since we were paying in Swiss Francs.. it was 8.67CHF. I reluctantly handed her 9CHF which she took, dumped in her draw and said "Merci, au revoir". I stood waiting for my 30 cents change which wasn't coming until I told her that I had given her 9CHF. She abruptly handed me my change and I walked out. I definitely wasn't going to tip (even if it was only 30 cents) for that overpriced, nasty, nasty coffee.
After a bit of a giggle about the coffee we headed back to the car so we could drive to a hypermarket called Cora. After hearing about the French hypermarkets from various friends I was very keen to see one for myself. I have gotten so used to doing my groceries in the little supermarket near our apartment that once I stepped foot into the monstrous shop my eyes lit up and my jaw must have dropped about 30cms. I think we spent about 2 1/2 hours walking through every single aisle of the hypermarket making sure to not miss anything. We got to a section in one of the aisles which was stocked with foreign foods and I think I just about screamed when I discovered some packets of Tim Tams. To know that a beloved Australia treat was merely 50 minutes drive away was just a little bit exciting.
Despite having the worst coffee I have tasted and forking out way too much money for said coffee, our trip to France was extremely satisfying! And returning with a large bag full of goodies was very exciting indeed.
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