Which aisle are the Faberge Eggs in?

I returned Saturday evening from a great two weeks in Spain (most of the pictures are on my Shutterfly site, and I even split them up into different city albums! That's kind of like labeling them, right Mom?). I was very good about using up most of my food before I left, so I had little waste. I was proud of myself, but that meant I returned home to an empty fridge. The stores were closed by the time I got in Saturday night. Since they are not open on Sundays, my food options were limited. I had half a jar of curry paste, a moldy onion, half a bottle of sour UHT milk (which I did use in my coffee Sunday morning, not a great way to start the day), two pieces of three week old bread, and coffee. If I was the Iron Chef, I could have no doubt made a feast that would wow the judges and keep me fed for a week. The theme ingredient would have been MOLD. But since I am no Morimoto, I accepted defeat and hungrily went to the grocery store last night.

France has a lot of laws that make no sense to me. For example-sales. I am cheap. I don't like to spend more than $20 on any article of clothing, aside from a winter coat. My shopping M.O. is to find an article of clothing that I like, covet it, obsess over it, look at it every time I go to the store, look at it online, etc, until that special day when I see the red tag dangling off its sleeve. That is not really an option here. France has some rule about sales. I don't understand them, and probably never will. What I do know is that there are big sales in France twice a year- once in winter and once in summer. The sales last for about a month. The French people go CRAZY for them. The stores are almost unbearable during this time. Aside from those two months, nothing is ever on sale here. The winter sales ended a month ago, so imagine my surprise as I approached the grocery store and saw sale signs hanging in the window. When I got close enough to read them, I saw the "sale" was a two day special on the basics, the "necessities"

I wondered momentarily how the store had gotten around the no sales law, but then focused my attention on my incredible luck. Despite sharing rooms with 10 strangers and finding the cheapest food possible, vacations are always hard on the wallet. So I was excited about this sale on the basics. I guess in my excitement, I forgot where I was. I logically assumed that by basics, the store meant THE BASICS-milk, bread, eggs, maybe yogurt or a couple kinds of produce. Not in France. For two days only at the Monoprix in Bouscat, you can pay low low prices on the "basics" such as ready made ham, cheese, and egg crepes, canned cassoulet, carbonated water, and this pink fish paste that I don't actually know what its name is but I tried it once last year. If you are curious about what it tastes like, go lick the nearest fishing dock.
Since none of those things were on my grocery list, I paid full price for a shopping basket full of American basics. Quel dommage.