So here we go again

General Discussion
#1

The bars and terraces are open again. So we went for a beer and a panache. Seven euros in a PMU bar. Never paid more than five before. Went to check out some restaurants. Menu du Jour. Three courses. Best price 20 euros no drinks. Worst price 35 euros.
So it’s back to the good old French answer to everything. Just shove up the prices again. They still shut at 2.00pm and close on Sundays and Mondays.

Like many over the past year we have got used to either taking a picnic or takeaway sandwich bars. For the time being visits to bars and restaurants will be for high days and holidays.

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#2

I’m not sure why you think it is only the French who put prices up? Those you quoted seem reasonable to me and all I can say is that if that’s your attitude then it’s probably fortunate that you don’t dine out in London or thousands of other places I could name.

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#3

A PMU Bar, I guess that you are eating in a town.
Try local villages instead.

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#4

I didn’t say I ate at PMU bar just a drink. The prices were on offer at local restaurants and in a smaller town. Yes I have heard stories of seven pound pints in London but my point is that the increase in percentage terms is huge.

It’s not just here but across the board. Local supermarket has French produced allongé tomatoes at 6 euros a kilo. Baby lettuce that have been 99 cents for ages suddenly go to 2.49. I see many people just looking and not buying.

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#5

Also have you been into shops at lunchtime and seen all the artisans getting their lunches and sitting outside to eat? I wonder if they will flock back to the ouvrier restaurants if the prices go up? Maybe they will and then pass this cost on

#6

Sad fact of life that prices only go one way…and if the bars and restaurants have had to limit capacity then that will affect things. You can’t make the same money to pay your staff and fixed costs from 10 tables as you could from 20.

(The cost of water and energy has a lot to do with the price of vegetables, especially out of season salad crops that have to be grow unnaturally. Sticking to in season veg tends to be better value. )

It is not always people profiteering, but sometimes just trying to make a living.

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#7

Sorry to say this Mike but you do come across as a whingeing Brit. I’ve been in loads of shops around lunch time and have yet to see crowds of artisans sitting outside.

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#8

Round here the poor souls have been forced to eat in their vans…too cold to sit outside. I’m sure they will be delighted to be able to eat a proper lunch indoors again!

We like the country for the quality of life, and part of that is down to strong labour laws that means workmen/women take proper lunch breaks, and can off set some of the cost against tax. They also keep small village restaurants viable.

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#9

With the restrictions in place most bars and restaurants that are opening are running at a loss; it’s a numbers game, simple economics. The two bars I deliver the paper to are both closed and will remain so until they can trade under more normal conditions next month. As for Sunday/Monday closure, we commerçants do have the right to a bit of time off to spend with family and friends. You don’t have to be a genious to plan a little, and as for wanting to eat in the middle of the afternoon… not even going to answer that one, t’es en France bordel ! :crazy_face:

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#10

Our local Italian resto, in its very expensive looking new premises, is still selling lunchtime menu du jour at 12 euros. The same as before the plague descended. And that includes wine too although we only have water.

We would love to go again but we are not really midday eaters, our main meal of the day is between 8 and 10, shame really. We had to force ourselves before and maybe we will again as we are getting fed up with ever more tasteless cod and chips from the evening van on Mondays.

#11

Vegetables were very expensive in almost all of the supermarkets I visited round here last winter. Quite a few stayed expensive even at peak season for that vegetable ie when there was a glut.

What annoyed me was I was absolutely certain the farmer did not receive that increase at all, it was kept by the supermarkets!

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#12

Round here in the Creuse places have been open for most of winter, for workers to make sure they got fed warm food.

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#13

A couple of factories opened their canteens to workers who were non-employees, and some places did take-aways. But no restaurant here was allowed to have people eating indoors…

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#14

Yes Mike, I, who never notices anything, have noticed food price increases. I hope the increases are being passed on to the producers not just the major multiples ripping everyone off, comme d’hab.

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#15

Sunday/Monday Thing is changing in allot of business not so much with restaurants and bars but that will happen

#16

After the year we have had? Are you serious! These poor bloody businesses have been struggling with a lot of bar/tab as only being able to open for half their business, eg, tabac items. And of course those restaurants and bars which have been fully closed for 6 months. I am pleased to see bars open who are trying to get going again. Some have fallen by the wayside. Come on, either you don;t have to work here in France and so these restrictions have not affected you…or you are singularly unempathetic.

Life will NOT go back to what it was before and this will apply to all businesses affected no matter what country you are in. Prices will obviously have to rise.

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#17

I’m afraid you come across as a whingeing rosbif. You resent a tiny price increase on beers from a business that’s in a desperate struggle to survive after having been shut down by Covid. Nice. And if you’re shopping for salads and veg in a supermatché, more fool you - shop in local markets instead, you’ll be buying direct from producteurs. And if you’re going to live in France, get to understand the country and it’s lovely people rather better.

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#18

So shop in local markets, not supermarchés. Easy.

#19

You don’t always buy direct from the producer ,my experience of market prices is so variable you cannot claim that they are cheaper anymore.

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#20

While I agree with the general sentiment of your comment, you make it sound like the entire native population of France shop in markets and avoid the supermarche, which when the country basically invented the Hypermarche format that has then thanks to the likes of Walmart and Tesco as well as Carrefour, taken over the world, it’s a bit of a stretch making it seem like ‘the locals’ avoid supermarkets. We’re ve ry lucky France still has a thriving market scene, but they’re hardly where all the retail action happens in France, even on fresh goods.

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