Moving to France... Things you WISH you'd put on the removal lorry

What about steel cut oats? Is that the same as pinhead oats?

Why does everybody talk about paint? you canā€™t get paint in France?! Thatā€™s weird, though is does explain why there are so many white interior walls and so many unpainted exteriors LOL Please advise

LOL ā€¦ increasing sizesā€¦ LOL

Thatā€™s the second time I heard someone couldnā€™t get sherry. What about substituting with vermouth? I wanted to make a cocktail I had had in Italy while I was in the US and it called for vermouth, but I only had sherry, lol It came out great. Just as I had remembered it. BTW still in L.A. but move to FR is imminent :smiley:

There are quite a few people mentioning paint. No one has elaborated about why. I would imaging that they have paint there, although it would explain a few things. How everybody has wallpaper, or white walls, or why I see a lot of ā€˜cementā€™ houses that havenā€™t been painted. I always thought that was strange.

Also, Iā€™m an artist. Should I bring artist paints too? What do you think?

I LOVE cilantro, use it a lot over here in L.A. Good to know about bringing some seeds, Iā€™ll put it on the list!

I found mustard powder at the epicerie. It was like going to the apothecary shoppe for some rare ingredient for my potion, (ahem, some recipe I wanted to whip up for my peeps) Iā€™ll be putting that on the list.

Forgive me, Iā€™m a Yank. Are you talking about what we call ā€˜confectionerā€™s sugarā€™ in the U.S.? Iā€™m not much of a baker, but I do use salt a lot for all types of savory dishes. I have a marble mortar and pestle and sometimes I want a very fine salt. Using that high-tech gadget makes short work of turning regular salt into the silky fine kind. Would that work with sugar, do you think?

SO MANY PEOPLE have mentioned paint. I donā€™t get it. Donā€™t they have paint in France? Horrible colors? Very expensive? Please explain.

Good point about what you wished you didnā€™t put in the lorry. Iā€™m trying to get rid of whatever I can before we move over there in a few months. Very good point indeed.

What is M&S? Is it an English store? Iā€™m American. Iā€™ve already thought about underwear. Socks too. Over here I found some good socks in H&M and you probably know they have H&M in France, although I donā€™t know if they have underwear. LOL Maybe a sports shop?

I donā€™t know what peopleā€™s problem with finding things like socks and knickers is - there are loads of underwear shops which do all sorts not just awful synthetics and I can buy lovely cosy-for-winter cashmere/wool knee length socks in my local supermarket (made by Guille).

Dakatine is the nicest peanut butter on the market, about a zillion times better than skippy or sunpat (but they donā€™t do crunchy, just smooth) and certainly miles better than those ghastly selfrighteous peanut butters you get in the bio shop (grown on the sunny moral high ground in la la land).

M&S is a UK shop which used to sell good quality basic things like socks cotton knickers and menā€™s cashmere jerseys (nothing else of real interest though) and now sells nasty frumptastic stuff for god knows whom.

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Why do Americans have to change the name for everything, whatā€™s wrong with calling coriander coriander?

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Paint is very expensive here, and the brands are limited. Shops now do have colour mixers but generally the pre-mixed ranges are not as appealing aesthetically. A bit like hair dye, where Iā€™m convinced that the french shades are different as they seem so much more acidic (or perhaps itā€™s the light?)

And icing sugar/confectioners sugar and baking powder are available everywhere - perhaps thing she have moved on since 2011!

( and France has lots of artistsā€™ supplies! )

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Hi Kirsten. In my experience so far in France the paint has the double benefit of being very poor quality, and very expensive. One tin of external gloss with a 12 year guarantee at 80ā‚¬ for 2 1/2 litres had blistered and fallen off within the first year. Buy instead from Holland, Germany or UK.

Mark Johnston.

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Because not everyone arriving in the USA spoke English, so cilantro for coriander garbanzo for chick peasā€¦ like British people saying courgette and American people saying zucchini, both are loan words for the same thing in English, just of different origins.

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It was my attempt at humour Vero, I visit the US frequently and love the place (and the people) but do pull peopleā€™s legs about the different words they use to the English - pants instead of trousers for example.

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Two nations separated by language.

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A builders shovel!!

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mole traps

Waitrose !

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