Well summer has arrived in Brittany with a bang and today the temperature must have topped 30c. It was the kind of afternoon that really should be spent at the seaside with your toes dangling in cool water. I did think of driving down to the coast but I had a few things to sort out in town first, just a few things that really shouldn't take more than half an hour - but this is France so dream on!

First stop the bank (yes the one that charges me 11 euros just to clear a sterling cheque to the value of £20!). I walk into the lobby and there is a big queue, I only want to check my balance and pay in a cheque. There is only one assistant at the desk (actually there's only one desk so that's probably why) and she is serving a customer who looks to be getting the small change for a shop or something as the assistant is counting out centimes - very slowly.

Twenty minutes pass and the queue is growing when the assistant gets up and disappears out the back, after about half an hour she returns looking refreshed and clutching a cup of coffee in one hand and a biscuit tin in the other. She sits back down and carries on counting out the small change - have they not heard of scales? By this time the queue is out of the door and trailing down the high street. Some of the less hardy have given up and gone home, a couple of others are actually sitting on the floor or maybe they passed out in the heat or finally lost the will to live. The whole thing was starting to remind me of the first day of the Oxford street sales, I was expecting people to turn up with tents at any minute. Eventually the last centime is counted and I get to pay in my cheque, total time at the bank 1hr 15 minutes - I will probably contract varicose veins from standing too long in one spot.

Next stop the supermarche. I only needed a few bits and pieces so I thought it would be quicker to nip into Lidls, only I discovered that they don't provide baskets and I didn't have a Euro coin for a trolley so it was a bit of a balancing act which on the whole I lost, thankfully eggs weren't on my list.

I make it to the checkout only to find only two cashiers and two very long queues, I go to the shortest queue and the cashier announces that her till is closing so I go to the other queue - the cashier announces that her till is also closing - Argghhh!!!

Both tills are now closed and there are about 20 people milling about waiting for a new till to open and 6 shop assistants arguing over who is going to open a till, eventually they decide, I think they might have drawn straws. It's surprising how heavy even small items get when your standing in a queue, there is a man in front of me who smells very strongly of alcohol and the fumes are making me feel dizzy, in his trolley he has 3 small children, 2 bottles of spirits, 3 cans of beer and a bag of sweets which I assume was for the kids - Is it just me or do French men drink a lot?

Just a letter to post now and I needed a stamp. I arrive at La Poste see the queue and decide it can wait another day.

By the time I get back in my car my shopping has melted and it's late and I'm too queued out to drive to the beach.