Where do you buy paint in France?

James, Some years ago we had the interior of our house redecorated using "normal" french paint and I'll never use it again. I'll either ship down "normal" UK paint or pay the high prices here for "good" french paint. On the other hand a friend of mine shipped down top quality UK paint (Farrow and Ball) for his shutters and it is showing signs of deterioration after only a year of South of France sun and wind. So I think for external work something tougher than UK paint is required. I'm going to try Tollens for my shutters which I hope will be more resistant and probably no more expensive than F&B or similar. Generally I don't mind paying top dollar for paint because compared to the labour cost (or personal effort if I'm doing it myself) it's not a great percentage of the job.

Lidl without question.

sorry Screwfix sell Leyland paint not Johnsons

We have discovered "Rogaray", our local branch is in Chateauroux, has some very good emulsions and indoor "laque" are excellent paints and not too expensive, I bought 1/2 lt of satin gloss for less than 10 €, enough for 5 sq mts. They don't do exterior stuff tho.

They sell wonderful wallpapers and curtains etc also. Much better range than Leroy Merlin.

That was meant to say, yes she can ship small loads to various parts of France too!

I have just bought and used on my shutters some exterior oil based gloss my a manufacturer called 'Astral', I got it from LeClerc brico and to be honest was attracted by the price, €38 for 3 litres (2.5 with 20% free) and took a bit of a chance on it. I have just finished the tin and thought it was excellent quality it covered 11 including three full size door shutters. It covered in one coat over a grey undercoat, it recomends two but as I have 18 shutters to do I am going to leave it at one. It is made by Akro Nobel which bought out dulux a few years and own the brand sikkins amongst others.

Don't forget Screwfix now deliver to France, I think some of their Johnsons range qualified for delivery over here, it's free delivery for orders over £100 (which won't be a problem with paint)

I expected this comments. There are sometimes good quality paint pot in Leroy Merlin. The DIY sheds must have had bad experiences with paint and toolkits such as Proxon. Paint costs in Italy only half and tool boxes for car, lawnmower, chainsaw etc only from Switzerland or Germany because what is offered here is hopelessly overpriced. Still if needed quickly I made best experiences with Leroy Merlin

In SW France, perhaps try Michele at http://www.fabricadesign.com/ mention Nigel sent you.

Yes

Buy in UK and get it shipped over by La Maison Shopping!

That's brilliant James, well done for sourcing that :-)

Thank you

I spoke to Kate from http://www.englishpaintdeliveredtofrance.com/ today. She can save you a lot of money if you need a lot of paint or can get a few people together to have a pallet load shipped. She can load around 275 liters of paint on a pallet and that costs around 250 quid to ship, so just a little extra per litre for delivery. She can also include brushes, roller, trays etc.

I would like to know the answer to this question too! Paint in France is sooooo expensive. Recently though, I went to Leroy Merlin and wanted to buy 10 litres of Magnolia or something similar, like Blanc Casse or Blanc Ivoire, and the lovely assistant advised me to buy 10 litres of white and add a "teint" - I did this and it cost me under 30 euros and it looks fine. Otherwise, it would have been 100 euros for a big pot of Blanc casse :-)

I have mine shipped in by relatives when they come. Its half the price and better quality.

The biggest problem we have is finding a gloss paint but Bricolage man told us to add a little water to it and it seemed to work a lot better on our shutters.

Roz

Liddle, when they have it. Their white paint is wonderful stuff for the shutters and any outdoor stuff. Water cleanable, eco friedly.

I think it's improving, their are some excellent products available, having said that the emulsion always seems too thin. Surely some enterprising immigrant has capitalised on this gap in the market? Maybe the problem is shipping costs.

That sounds like a good price, do you have details of the UK company please Alison?

Thanks

James