When we lived in Chamonix we would nip through the tunnel to shop in Italy as is soooo much cheaper than where we lived. Our main purchase at the time was nappies, fresh pasta, parmesan and lunch Before anyone points out the tremendous cost of the Mont Blanc tunnel, I worked for the lift company and received a fab reduction on use of the tunnel.
Sense of humour? If you knew me rather than making assumptions about my assumptions being assumptions you would understand I like a good debate and that taking a position in an argument is often only to bring out the issues for others!No assumptions made just reacting to your text? Pleased to hear that you are a thinking shopper. If you do read about Tesco you will find them appalling. I am told that Intermarche are not great but the best of the French supermarkets. But who cares? Have a nice trip to Spain.
@ Chris - if you actually knew me rather than making judgements based on the very limited information that one finds on SFN you'd know where I do the bulk of my shopping and that it is the local AMAP and the local (British run) sausage farm! However I have yet to find fairy liquid, bog roll, cat food and other such boring staples being manufactured and sold by any local producers between here and San Sebastian.
Should you discover any such charming outlets, please do let me know and I'll ensure I shop even more ethically in future. But presumably they should be French rather than Spanish in any case as per your previous Tesco comment?!!
You will probably drive past thousands of local producers, vineyards etc. But have fun with that, contributing to a corporation rather than the local economy!
Well I'm off to Spain now to go shopping in Auchan, so you can make of that what you will!
Well said Doreen!
Maybe that was sent before complete!
Without going in to the ethical credentials it is English and based in
Chris - why is shopping at Tesco any better or worse than shopping in Carrefour? Or B&Q or Leroy Merlin?
Absolutely agree Doreen.
French breakfast cereals are appalling and contain more sugar than the British equivalents to reflect the French love of sugar in the mornings. This is why plain cheerios are not sold in France and 'honey nut' (aka sugar coated crap nuggets) are. Hardly a healthy toddler snack.
Well Doreen, it was just an example. Of course anyone can eat anything. But you know what I mean? We live here because we like France, the countryside, the food, the wine and the space. If not we would choose somewhere else! I am embarrassed by the non French speaking Brit fraternity. It is so rude and uncultured. My French is by no means impeccable but I try and speak to French people in French and they are happy about that even my French is worse than their English!
@all, maybe we should form a group of non grumbling Brits!? I agree we here so much from Brits living in France about what's wrong with it. They are shopping at Tesco, eating Corn Flakes and going to only English speaking socials, I despair. Let's have a rant about the most ridiculous Brit behaviour shall we?
Steve, we moved here about 8 months ago and have found everyone charming and helpful, much more so than the Brits we have met, to be honest.
It's a fair assessment Steve, and you did clearly state that it was in your experience of 16 months.After 32 years, you might become more disillusioned.But, having said that, living anywhere in the world as a 'foreigner' means adapting, accepting and surtout KNOWING the fellow beings.Personally speaking, if one took say 75 % of French drivers off the road, sacked 50% of unnecessary fonctionnaires,and scatterd the city/town French liberally in the countryside(to open 'l'esprit' un peu)...thinks would be hunky dory. A bit tongue in cheek..there are the nice ones and the less in every nationality and culture.Thanks for the post..best of luck.
At our local quartier picnic I thanked everyone for the warm welcome and their friendliness to us in the five years that we have been here in the Hauts de Trivy.
We will have been invited out to a meal twice in the last fortnight.
So do I but I wish the prices were the same :-)
Exactly!
Personally I have found our local French people very kind and helpful. They are polite and caring and I am so pleased to be living here. They have offered us help with things from starting a vehicle to roofing and things for our house. So I for one am pleased to redress the balance of people who move to France but seem to hate the French. Afterall we are the foreigners here.
I think the problem is that a lot of the ex-pats left UK quite a few years ago and have not tried moving back there. I only last 18 months and thought a lot of UK people were most unhelpful and moved back to be near my nice French people in my village. UK has changed in the last 5 - 10 years and a lot of people don't realise that as they have lived most of the time here.
It is like 40 years ago when people helped each other. In 9 years of living here have only been insulted twice and one of these times a French café owner told this person to leave as she loved her new "English" friends. So there