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Opening hours, and the rule nobody enjoys
Two things here, and the grammar is the harder one. On the hours: Alex's experience is ordinary across much of continental Europe and catches every newcomer from a country with retail open late. The specifics vary but the shape repeats — a midday closure of one to two hours, early closing on Saturday, nothing at all on Sunday, a closed morning somewhere in the week, and an annual shutdown in summer. Belgium and Switzerland are both stricter than France about Sundays, and Switzerland is stricter still, with shops closed and a genuine cultural expectation of quiet. The practical rules are: check the hours on the door rather than online, because the door is correct; do anything administrative in the morning; never rely on a Monday; and if a public holiday is near, assume the surrounding days are unreliable. On the agreement rule: it is the most notorious piece of French grammar, and it is worth being honest about three things. First, it is almost entirely **invisible in speech** — 'perdu' and 'perdues' sound identical, as do 'lu' and 'lus'. The exceptions are participles whose feminine adds a consonant sound: 'écrite', 'faite', 'prise', 'mise', 'ouverte'. So in conversation the rule costs you nothing most of the time. Second, it matters a great deal in **writing**, where it is the single most reliable marker of whether somebody has been educated in French, and it is marked hard in exams. Third, **French speakers get it wrong too** — the perception-verb and 'laissé' cases in the fourth grammar point are genuinely disputed, and style guides disagree. What that adds up to for a learner: learn the core rule properly, because it is mechanical and you will need it in writing. Do not let the exceptions stop you speaking, because nobody can hear them. And when you are unsure in writing, you can usually restructure to avoid the question entirely — 'j'ai reçu une lettre qui disait' needs no agreement at all, and is better prose than the version that does.