Trip to Auchan - what to buy?

[Confitofduckand]

DC kept coming home from Y1 French club with questions about French food. So I thought that I would take them to France (to Auchan, to be precise: un hypermarché).

Ignoring the dc at this point, what should I buy? How will 2023 be improved by my having kicked it off with a trip to Auchan?

Ready made cake mix from the chiller section
All the snacks for aperitifs
Tinned / jarred cassoulet
CHEESE

Condensed milk in big tubes— like big toothpaste tubes.

i have never ever sat squeezing the stuff into my mouth

never
ever

Confit de canard is dirt cheap in Lidl.
Due to brexit you cannot take cheese into the UK. Can't get Cheshire posted to me which is awful.

Have a look on the website for the one you're going to for the promotions.
Don't forget to go to Flunch for a cheap meal.
For wine, le chais, rue de deux ponts in Boulogne is very good for SW France wines.

My came back from France with cheese in her suitcase. Lots of her friends did the same. No problems.

If you are travelling from a country within the EU (see the list below), you can bring in any meat, dairy or other animal products, as long as they are free from diseases and for your own consumption.

Will we need to make reservations for Flunch @newtb? I will check the rules on cheese. It would be quite dreadful if we were forced to throw it into the Channel on departure.

So I'm the weird who didn't get (much) wine.

Always allow ourselves an extra 2 hours then we need before getting our Eurotunnel home so we can get in Carrefour to stock up.

On:

• Crisps
• mustard
• Mayonnaise
• chocolate
• Haribo
• Hand soap
• DOP shower gel and shampoo
• chewing gum
• iced tea
• tea bags (citron)
• candles
• refill for fragrance lamp
• seasonal decor etc

@Abra1t your suitcase of cheese reminds me of the Brie sandwich in Twin Peaks (brought in a suitcase from Paris to the Canadian border):

I recently bought some dragibus online from snack chest uk, I was so happy to find them!

I'll have to have a look next time I'm in our local Leclerc and try one.

Ah tried the confit d'oignons and didn't like them, DD likes mozzarella and pesto a close 2nd

Cassoulet in tins. A delicious and easy meal.

I'm going to have to look out for the Dauphinoise in tins...

Hee hee, yes!
(Rules in bold in that first post of mine 🙂)

Teisseire sirop in cans.

And don't forget to add stationery to the shopping list - particularly hard-backed notebooks with squared paper.

Tinned lentils with petit salé (bacon chunks) is good and an easy midweek meal, with some salad. 'Lentilles aux petit salé'
Tins of flageolet beans (Bonduelle or Auchan own brand) are lovely heated and served with roast lamb.
For wines , we've always found the ones marked 'Selection Auchan' (with a little paper collar) to be very good value.

That sounds delicious @SiobhanSharpe

@RomainingCalm I am intrigued by the stationery - do you not mind the squared paper (… and why do they do it like that?!).

No need to reserve for Flunch it's a supermarket café latest menus are at www.flunch.fr
If you go on to www.lidl.fr you can look at the catalogue promos just before you go. Same for Aldi.
Also, France still has C&A but not sure where they are near Boulogne. Nausicaa at the North end of Boulogne is worth a visit if you have time.

The other thing I find great quality and value, is children's clothes. There are a number of brands that you can get without ghastly logos etc., which are reasonably well made and look so much classier than what we can get here.

Normally best to go for a size larger than in the UK.

For lunch, I often go to Cite Europe (if I'm going to the one in Coquelles), as I love the flammekueche at Les Trois Basseurs. (You can also get some things at Carrefour that are better than those at Auchan)

Have a lovely time, glad to know that your DC is learning a foreign language, and please speak French whilst you are there (or one of the family if you don't).

Thank you so much @LlynTegid . We have had a lovely trip and are making our return now!

We all got to speak a bit of French, thank you - and it was quite well-received, too!

We really enjoyed our flunch - great shout @newtb. That was really good fun!

We also had a lovely morning at Nausicaa. That was rather fantastic.

I will go through my Auchan haul in a bit because it all looks very glorious and is almost entirely made up of your suggestions …

BUT: does anyone know why the P&O ferry is such a nightmare? We missed yesterday’s because Border Control were taking so long, and then a skeleton staff had to heroically get ready another later ferry, and now we are sitting in another Border Control queue on the way back (have been in it for 1h30 so have missed our ferry again).

Thank goodness for the Auchan shopping. It turns out that our baby really likes chouquettes!

Bit unfortunate to have timed it when there are Borders Agency staff on strike, but then again they have always struggled at holiday time. We've celebrated Christmas as a holiday since Victorian times and summer holidays been the law since the 1930s, but that does not seem enough notice for Borders Agency management to staff things properly even if no industrial action.

@tukker those Brett fromage du Jura crisps are out of this world, with serious umami. It was like having a farmyard in my mouth.

We might have to go back to France just to get more of those!

Shamelessly placemarking this thread as we've got a French port on our cruise next year and am looking forward to a stock up!

Yes!! Glad you agree! I love them :)

Oh my, this thread! Currently researching a weekend trip from Yorkshire, specifically for confit duck and dauphinois 😃

We have bought many, many tins of confit of duck @SingingSands . I didn’t see dauphinois potatoes, though.

So far, paprika Pringles have gone down a treat and we managed 4 religeuses, a bag of chouquettes, a bag of madeleines and a gallette des rois (I managed to find the chokeable favour, fortunately - a fairly solid skittle and ball, rather than serving it up to dc, thank goodness!).

We now have many tins of vegetables and jars of cassoulets and carbonades. And wine, of course. And 0% alcohol beers.

Thanks mumsnet x