I can strongly recommend http://www.epiceriebarenton.com/ for most of what you crave. Excellent quality delivered to your door.
I think we hardly ever import. A few Italian and Swiss things appear with family visits, polenta, pizoccheri and a few other things that really are not available here. My old source of Stilton has gone but I still have another, albeit more expensive. What we can't buy I try to make, but I must admit I don't (yet) get enough bubbles in my crumpets. I do miss proper Asian ingredients though but have a French friend who is a total India freak who bulk buys some of them in Paris and shares with me. Other ones are missing and no mail order service seems to do them. But then I prefer not to import. Worcester Sauce, Tate and Lyle's treacle and a few other things are found by shopping in the big chains, different stores for particular things. Tea is difficult because I mainly drink green and white teas, Lapsang Souchong being the exception, which cost an arm and a leg here and good ones are hellish hard to find.
Mincemeat, lard and good strong tea bags.
Most other things I can find here in 64 or I make my own. The lard I really miss for my savoury pastry. Other bits and bobs we bring back with us on our twice yearly trips to the UK.
We have our ASDA delivery sent down. We are lucky enough to be not far from a drop point. we miss the usual stuff like Bisto, Baked Beans etc which you can get here but are so expensive, we probably pay well under half the price even including transport charges that you pay in Supermarkets of English food shops. It is not the fault of the shopkeepers in France that the prices are so high, it is all connected with the price that they have to pay. We still go to the shops at Eymet and Montguyon for cheese, bacon etc. When we go to England we go with no luggage and come back with our maximum weight allowance. Just one warning. Two years ago, so that my hold luggage was not overweight, we put bags of self raising flour and caster sugar in our cabin luggage. We realised our mistake at security when we had to explain why we had a cabin bag full of white powder. Red faces at a busy Gatwick airport
Kwashie - Scottish friends also brought us a Tunnock tea cake - my first experience of such a delight and it's on the "request" list for their next visit in April! My treat for them was a cassoulet - it seemed a fair exchange!
I always take Nescafe Alta Rica coffee . Far better than any French instants. Mischeviously I like to play "fake foods nostalgia" with my friends so I bring them Wagon Wheels, Tunnocks Teacakes and Eccles cakes...
We went back home to the U.S. this past summer & brought back some Asian & Mexican spices / sauces as well as a couple of kosher items that I can't seem to find near here.
English or Irish bacon and sausages- informal network in France
Philippino food easiest in bulk from London
Indian etc mail order from Weymouth
Marmite, Oxford marmalade, Gentlemen's Relish, Cheddar, Horseradish, Worcester Sauce, stuffing mixes, falafel mix etc etc all mail order from UK or get visitors to bring along with (sometimes) a few English crisps
Aged balsamic- wish I could remember where but not in Brittany- maybe Italy mail order with some sauces, sundried toms etc
Clothes very often mail order from UK- French esp Bretons don't seem to be my size- I wonder why- must be the above!
Hiya -
We are lucky in that family and friends arrive with British/foreign goodies on a regular basis - and after 18 months away - I had two trips back to the UK this Summer so brought back stuff I missed... Some are available near me (Carcassonne and Limoux can be rather cosmopolitan in the Summer months) but the prices are frightening. So -
Marmite, HP Sauce, Worcestershire Sauce, Mango Chutney, Lime Pickle, malt vinegar, Seriously Strong Cheddar Cheese, OXO cubes, tamarind paste, Cumberland sausages, back bacon, curry leaves.
And friends arrived last month from Scotland with a rather desirable (and fabulously expensive) malt whisky......
To be honest, I could probably do without most of it (apart from Marmite - c'mon!) and I've made my own brown sauce, but it does feel like a special treat to have the others in my cupboard. I still laugh at the customs guy at Prestwick Airport questioning why I was taking Isle of Arran cheese to France.
"I mean, lady, cheese to France? You've got to be kidding me!"
So I replied, "There isn't a lot of cheese in France with Isle of Arran whisky in it."
His response? "Fair point.... and I'll be guessing that the bottle of Isle of Arran whisky is a mouthwash?"!
Elaine xx
I find a lot of food from my homecountry Germany at our local Lidl or Aldi, especially now around Christmas time.
If we miss specialities from my husband’s native country South Africa, we get them from London when we visit our son.
Just in case you want some Austrian food:
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I miss Thai, Vietnamese and Indian foods. In Aix-les-Bains there is none of that and also what is strange is I cannot find any Greek food and we are so much closer to Greece than we were in Canada. Im dying for a good shawarma made of beef and not veal and with garlic sauce so I have to basically make my own sauce and sort of it wing it most times!
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I miss Thai, Indian and Chinese but luckily I can normally get my fix from a pretty decent choice of restaurants if I trek up to Toulouse. There are also a couple of good Asian supermarkets. Failing that I just pop over the border into Spain where the supermarkets offer so much more international choice - at much lower prices than in France.
I also miss a good slab of beef steak - but that’s a whole different topic…
@cat Ariege (09) near Foix - surrounded by Gascony cattle but in all the time we lived here we’ve never had a tender and tasty cut. Occasionally we can get tasty but tender is as rare as rocking horse sh*t! Any suppliers gratefully accepted 
@james is Brent an SFN member? Is he too far? Can he post tasty and tender steaks? Answers on a postcard please!
I don’t think so, I’ll send him an invite 
Simon, I do go within a medium drive of the Ariege. I make a run once every four weeks from Toulouse to Pau/Dax and I go by Saint Gaudens which isn’t too far if I remember from my time living near there. It is possible that I could make a quick stop at the autoroute exit there. That’s probably closer for you than our Colomiers stop.
James and Catherine, I used to be a member but I forgot my account deets when I tried to log in a minute ago so I used my Google credentials and hey, that seems to be what I logged in with last time. Another SFN member recommended you to us (John Alcock).
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Hi @Brent_Curtis welcome back! You’re Google login would have matched you with the correct account so you’re all good. If you want to add a business listing feel free http://www.survivefrance.com/c/working-in-france/business-listings
See you soon
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