Grand frais

This week we had driven in early to Troyes to visit the CPAM office, as my temporary social security number will expire in June. Brian is okay, as although he still doesn’t have his ‘carte vitale’ (health service card) his Social Security number is not a temporary one. We had arrived around 9.30 and joined the queue of early arrivers. I have not worked out how to make an appointment yet, otherwise I would do. There is no email address, or contact number for CPAM, it’s just a case of turning up and queuing. I think we will qualify for an appointment later. Miraculously though we were invited in at 10am and followed a lady to a small interview room. She was very helpful and confirmed there was nothing for us to do, and all was well, just to wait, ‘Tout est bien…’ she began, and told us it can take up to two years to receive your carte vitale. So in the meantime, she renewed my attestation with my temporary number for a further twelve months. I think that’s a sign that we need to be patient.

A friend had mentioned to me that I would like the store ‘Grand frais’. That it sold a wide variety of quality fruit and veg, pulses, meats, cheese, spices etc. and that it also sells imported produce, which is not always available in french supermarkets, as they like to retain a seasonal offering - which I do love. I’d seen the shop a few times when we had visited the E. Leclerc hyper market in Troyes, but we had yet to try it out.

It’s not much to look at from the outside, but inside it was foodie heaven.

The produce was beautifully displayed with limited packaging, and was so fresh.

I did have to restrain myself from buying more than we could eat, so restricted my choice this time to fruit and veg, well mainly.

We came away with a wonderful collection of goodies.