I am laying some paving at my house, and i need to buy some sharp sand ( obviously thats the english name)
i spoke to my builder and he said use Sable de Brame - but when i look it doesnt look like the sharp sand im used to from the uk.
we are doing a sand and cement base to lay the paving on, just 20mm bed - so sharp sand and cement is the best way.
can someone please help with what i may ask my supplier MPlus for.
thanks
Sable de concassage? Then state the granulometry you want?
Sable à maçonner is what we use.
Forget what you are used to in the UK.
Here one size fits all.
Just ask for sable and you will get what’s called grit sand in the Uk.
You would struggle to lay bricks with it but bricks are not a material of choice here in France.
It takes some getting used to working with here but you will learn.
Perfect for every job and your paving.
Dont add too much water.
thanks everyone; ill visit my supplier and look at what they have
If you live near the sea like we did, make sure the sand is washed sand if buying locally. Many builders over the years used sea sand locally and within a short time the red algae appeared that comes from salty sand and one customer we had, OH had to demolish the end gable of the house and re-build because the whole lot had gone porous being almost on the beach and the builder had used that sand.
Two common grades of sand in france are sable 04 and 02, all to do with the grain size, 04 is course (sharp) sand.
I have no idea, when laying slabs I simply went to the merchant and told him what I wanted it for, and he gave me the right stuff. 
The Victorian tiles on the path to my front door were in a terrible state.
They all had to come up as Bristol Water offered the ‘Lead replacement scheme’. They would dig up the road and lay plastic pipe to my boundry, free ‘n fur nothin’.
I do the rest.
I layed a brick path on a 50mm layer of sand, well tamped down with a piece of +/- 80mm sq on end, on 100mm hardcore. Worked fine.
A bonus was a tip given to me by a neighbour in the ‘wet trades’
Run a long bladed knife down between/around all the edges of the paving after you’ve brushed sand across the paving into the joins. This allows rain to drain down and not pool on the surface. I was sceptical about this but did as I was told and it worked. I never had water pooled on the path.
