Thanks!
Yes, there was definitely a lot of laughing. We had a lot of fun together.

"when C started pointing out to other customers which aisle they could find things in"

I thought this was really funny. We are going to Paris in March and sharing an apartment with my sister and her husband. I hope we have as much fun as you did with your family. Thanks.

I am enjoying your report! Whenever we travel, DH loves to explore the local supermarkets! We always purchase snacks for the hotel room. Looking forward to the next installment!

Supermarkets are always surprisingly fun and enlightening.

Talking about milk/cream for coffee----what's with the milk in a box on the shelves that is not refrigerated? In the smaller towns in France that's all we could find. It was good and we refrigerated it after opening but I can't imagine a product like that in the US. In those markets the cold refrigerater sections did not have any milk at all.

An item we loved in the supermarkets in Paris was the sliced, packaged ham in the fridge section. It was so good for a quick snack at the end of the day. Sliced, packaged ham in the US is just nasty compared to the European stuff. The US is a progressive country---why can't we get ham as good as in France & Italy? It's like night and day different.

Great report, jmct! I love it that you passed on the Louvre and yet managed to be brimful of culture.

I got up at 0245 on the day Opera Garnier tickets went on sale here, was all primed to jump on decent cheap seats for either an opera or ballet. Waited... waited... by the time my turn came, incredibly the last expensive tickets for either would have cost our family of four $135. I still would have jumped on them, but half of us wanted dance and the other half preferred opera. So I agonized for a few min and then turned the computer off and went back to bed.

I am thoroughly enjoying your report and travelling vicariously with you to my favourite city. We, too, did the "meh" thing when we saw the lineups at the Louvre, but ultimately did get there (4 times). It's never enough!

I, too, am thoroughly enjoying your report and can't wait for the next installment. We'll be in Paris next September with family members, one who will be visiting Paris for the first time. I appreciate your details and your humor. Thank you!

Gosh, I remember that boxed milk from a trip to Switzerland in 1983. It seemed so exotic at the time, but then our local Kroger carried it for a while.

this is such a fun report. you are fortunate to travel with family and enjoy all the laughs.

the Milk you got was called "longlife milk" 9at least in England) and it is really a lifesaver at times.

As for half and half, I would just buy plain milk, and then cream, and mix them til I got what I'd like in my coffee. It has worked in a couple of places.

Thanks all for the kind words and the milk info. Funny how those little things are what you find yourself laughing about later. Taconic, I probably shouldn't admit this, but we weren't even able to figure out which of the many choices wasn cream, in either the refrigerated or non-refrigerated sections. Oops.

I just have a bit left, mostly some restaurant highlights. I'll try to finish it up tomorrow, or at least before I start to focus/fantasize about the next trip!