Buying from UK and using delivery company to Dordogne - recommendations

I’ve been following this thread … laughing and (almost) crying… at the responses…

Then I thought back to how things used to be when we lived in the UK…long, long ago… and how we loved to get a Cheap-Day Trip to France… and stock-up on French goodies from the Hypermarkets.

So many delicious food stuffs… household/garden tools…even a wind-up parasol one summer… (all incredibly cheap)… mind you, we did not add the fuel consumption down to the Ferry and back…into the equation… we just considered it a little holiday with souvenirs…:wink:

Everyone is so different in their tastes… perhaps those who bring stuff into France from the UK are only doing what we did… in reverse.

I have rose-tinted specs which I wear with deep satisfaction. :innocent: … along with my glass, always half-full :wink:

Years ago… we arrived in France armed with Heinz Beans, Ginger Nuts, HP Sauce and Marmite.
HP is still craved by my OH on occasions … but the biscuits and beans have long gone… and the marmite is rarely touched from one year to the next. (I have had to beg friends to stop bringing supplies.)

We have completely submerged ourselves in the local French Cuisine…and enjoy eating the delicious organic produce which is the norm in our part of the country.

If we go to UK …we do enjoy a bacon sandwich at a favourite outlet…and I enjoy browsing in Sainsbury’s… but find I buy less and less… and even M&S fails to tempt me nowadays… :scream: and that used to be a firm favourite…

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Care to expand David - I don’t get you?

Really? Explain how ‘bonne journée!’ is any different to ‘have a nice day!’

My apologies for the mother tongue thing - my mistake :wink:

That is not the point I am trying to make. The French are more emotive in the sense that an individual in a shop or wherever will behave how they are felling that day. They are not compelled to be nice in France. But that is good because there is a person serving you not a robot. If they are having a bad day or feeling down they will let you know. One day you can walk into a boulangerie and they are really polite when ordering your pain au chocolat. The next day they may chuck it in your face because they are pisséd off. I like that. A person is serving you.

In the UK people are being told to be nice all the time because it is their job regardless of how they are feeling. It is not genuine. Its superficial.

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Oh dear! And I thought it was just a simple question!

Not much evidence of European Union here. But then we’ve known that for a long time.

I didn’t actually ask for opinions or other people’s taste in butter. I don’t want to eat Anchor just because the label Is familiar, I prefer it 100 fold. But I am willing to try what has been suggested.

And shocking as it may seem, I need carpet for my very slippery wooden stairs to stop my 12 year old dog from constantly falling down them.

And surprisingly I do know how to paint. Have tried many brands in the past and none have been as good as Dulux. However, I am prepared to try the others suggested.

If the Dordogne is economically depressed, maybe it would be an idea for businesses to open a bit more often, smarten up there act, premises, food, choice and service and actually make the customer (who is providing their income) feel valued and respected.
‘This is what you get, like it or lump it’ attitude is not a progressive or proactive attitude to have, and not in my opinion, one that will take me back.

As for the bread, yes, probably spoilt for choice (oh there’s that word again) in Dubai. Bakeries in Dubai makes the best bread and range I have ever had. Even the ‘packet’ stuff is fresh. The bread here would not pass muster there. I find it very dry, hard and to be honest, boring. But that’s my opinion which does not seem to going down well compared to everyone else’s opinion. Hey hoe! C’est la vie.

I will definitely look at La Redoute. Fortunately I don’t want a tacky pine dresser, so that is a good thing.

For the want of creating another storm in a tea cup, is there an M&S in this neck of the woods? And I’d still love to know where to get good bacon and ham for that matter. The deli counters here don’t seem to have any ham joints or any bacon. And please could I just have answers. Would be really appreciated.

I also do appreciate certain aspects of what France has to offer - I wouldn’t have moved here otherwise but - yes - my bad, I didn’t research that I would be going back 20 years in time and attitude.

As a British Citizen, I don’t consider myself an immigrant, but I may be wrong. I am obviously blatantly wrong with many other things I think. But, hey, I like to be different.

Thanks for the few suggestions. They have been helpful and constructive. However, have been rather taken aback with some of the opinions, assumptions and judgements.

Just as one last note - when I was in the UK, don’t think it would have gone down too well as a nurse to be polite to a patient one day and a bitch the next day dependent on my moods. Don’t think I would have lasted very long. Very much a frontline industry. I’m still a person not a robot, but when at work my job was to do what I was trained and there to do, and my care and delivery of service was not dependent on whether I could be bothered or not or how I was feeling. And I certainly wouldn’t have bothered my patients with my woes! And I wouldn’t accept a plate of food to be thrown at me in a restaurant because the waitress was having a bad day. I wouldn’t accept that in any service/frontline industry.

So, having had the social, economic and political lectures, I will crawl back into my cheap house, eat my bread and dripping and be eternally grateful to have it, and dream of the UK lifestyle that I actually haven’t had for nine years whilst continuing to watch my dog fall down the stairs - as long as I conform to what seems to be the majorities views, it’s all good. Considering my requests seem so reprehensible to so many, I doubt I will be coming back anytime soon. Shame! I was under the impression that this forum was here to help people and be informative, not to send to them to the gallows if they have a modern, forward thinking, open, slightly different way of thinking. Good day and bonne chance.

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Verity, I know you have just written your obituary thread (it was very funny to be fair)…but can you take a moment to explain why you moved to France. At least you have humour.

I like your comment ‘I also do appreciate certain aspects of what France has to offer - I wouldn’t have moved here otherwise but - yes - my bad, I didn’t research that I would be going back 20 years in time and attitude’.

People move to the Dordogne to go back 20 years in time. Others just go for a holiday. That is the point. The majority of France is normal. Believe me…it is normal. We had a weekend in the Dordogne once…and it was nice…for a weekend ! I can’t say I will go back any time soon.

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Carpets are available throughout France…

Saint Maclou is an excellent carpet shop… Is one of these close to where you are ??

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I’m not interested in what’s going on for the people employed to serve me - neither do I expect them to be interested in what’s going on for me. I do expect decent, consistent service when parting with my dosh. Slap my arse and call me Donald if that’s asking too much. There is no place for people bringing their problems and issues into the workplace - I’d prefer they stayed at home!
I’d also prefer a nice robot over a miserable human any day!! :slight_smile:

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What else can a British citizen who resides outside of Britain be? Surely by definition anyone who moves abroad to live in a country of which they are not a citizen, is an emigrant/immigrant - they’ve emigrated out of Britain and immigrated into a foreign country. Unless they’re an “expat” of course…

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Oh Anna dont go there - I already tried!! :wink:

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That’s my big gripe, and I’ve come across it too much in the UK but not so much in France. It’s a bit of a raw nerve right now because last time I was in the UK was because I’d gone back for a funeral. I needed to buy black clothes so I went to Primark (yes I know, hang my head in shame, but I only wanted stuff I could wear once) and the child at the counter gave me a false smile and asked if I was “planning to go somewhere special”, obviously that was her question of the day for every customer who bought an outfit. Not wanting to go there I mumbled something incoherent, and she asked again, so I said ‘Since you ask they’re for my brother’s funeral tomorrow’ and she didn’t know how to respond at all, she couldn’t even manage a graceful expression of sympathy. It was a totally meaningless question, nothing at all to do with communicating with a fellow human being, in fact if she’d even bothered to look at me she must have seen that I’d been crying a lot and wasn’t exactly in a chirpy mood. I’m all for Hello and Have a nice day or Bonjour-hah and Bonne journée-hah which they seem to like saying round here, that’s standard politeness and exactly how it should be IMHO, little social niceties like that are the fabric of society, they make everyone feel noticed and valued and all that. And I don’t at all mind the odd spontaneous comment if you happen to be buying an item that they have something interesting to say about. But anything more personal than that, I find intrusive.

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You buy an apple in a supermarket in the UK and they ask you if you need help packing.

No robot.

Then the robot asks you if you are feeling happy today.

Yes robot

Anna - I completely agree with you. My comment was really about employees not bringing their personal issues to work - especially those in a customer facing role. It’s about professionalism. You can’t treat customers badly just because you’re having a bad day and, by the same token, neither should customers treat employees badly.

I also love the niceties and use them myself but I don’t put too much weight on their sincerity between complete strangers.

Your situation sounds pretty awful and demonstrates a complete lack of empathy and a basic inability to communicate - clearly someone who shouldn’t be in the job!

Crikey - we’re a long way from delivery of UK goods to the Dordogne !! :slight_smile:

Yep indeedy!!
Though on the other hand I guess it all comes back to the same thing - how we relate to the people and the culture we come up against day to day: are we generally comfortable with it, do we respect it, do we feel in tune with it, can we relax and be ourselves, are we “bien dans sa peau” or does it cause pent up frustrations because we feel at odds and we can’t find what we want.

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Back to the original poster. I’ve used Sterling Shopping to bring down some items and they are very reliable. A friend uses them to do a Tesco order and gets it delivered to their UK base and they bring it down, do a couple of runs a week. Hope this helps.

I buy bacon and fabulous Melton Mowbray pork pies from the pig people in Eyrenville who may well have a website now I come to think of it ( they are at Issigeac market on Sundays by the bio shop)
Ha! Yes here we are

Contact : Paul Morris

Aux délices de la ferme Farm Shop

Adresse : Maison Neuve Eyrenville 24560 PLAISANCE

Courriel : famille.morris@orange.fr

Site : www.chalkyridge.com

Tel travail : 0553587190

Tel portable : 0679392479

If you come to the Creuse, you can go back 50 years in time

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I used to go back to school in Scotland with a bottle of nuoc mam, a big jar of roasted-then-ground sesame seeds and lots of saucisson in my case because a bit of home food is good when you are homesick and they try to make you eat beans in tomato sauce for breakfast (otherwise the best meal of the day by miles, I still remember the delicious black pudding, square sausage, kippers, sausages with marmalade, oh and heavenly porridge )…

Hi Verity,
I live in the Tarn and have had loads of deliveries from British Corner shop and their chilled sausages and bacon etc was great. Pound shop also deliver to France for a flat rate of £12.00 or euros cant remember, and some of their items are the same as you can buy here but less than half the price. Its a bit pot luck what they have but I have had some great stuff, especially hair care products. My daughter and I order loads of things and go halves in the 12.00 postage so makes it worth while. The paint is worth getting “man with van” if you are doing a lot of decorating as the paint here is terrible. Wicks will always sort an order and “man with van” collects and delivers. I get most of my clothes from M&S France - as I am tall and French clothes are to short in the body. Debenhams/Next etc all deliver and Amazon UK is quicker delivery than Amazon France for the same product.
It`s all a question of choice and how you want to live - I work for a British company but pay all my taxes here as this is where I now live so is only fair. Its all mix and match to suit your own life style.

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For furniture, have you tried second hand warehouses such as Troc? sometimes you will find a gem and very cheap.

For butter President Demi-sel seems pretty much like uk anchor to me.