France, What you wont find in the guide books. 1

Queues. Supermarkets, after loading up your trolley with cheap wine you head for the checkout, you notice one checkout has only one customer in it, and you park up behind the customer and unload your trolley, how was you to know that the the customer and the employee were friends/related and they were having a long discussion on some subject or another, meanwhile people are joining the queue behind you, after a while the conversation ends and the customer produces his debit card, at last movement you think, in goes the card, and is rejected, the card is removed and given a quick polish on the sleeve, while this is happening another checkout opens, now in the UK the person behind you (you've already emptied your trolley) will move to the newly opened checkout, not in France, there's a mad dash to be first, often its the person at the back with less manoeuvring to do that wins, with no guilt or even a thought to what they have done, there goods are passed through the scanner, paid for and the customer departs while the customer in front of you has his card polished for the fifth or sixth time, but success the card goes through and its your turn. The other favourite trick is to start filling the checkout then continue shopping adding to it as its passed over the scanner, this of course means that when they've finished shopping and its all totalled up they still have to load everything into the bags.