Arriving in France late Sunday evening - anything open?

[tribalmango]

We are arriving at Montpellier airport at 9pm tomorrow, collecting a car and driving about an hour (west) to our rental, which is quite rural.

I am struggling to find somewhere we'll be able to pick up essentials for Sunday evening, Monday morning before we can get to a supermarket.

It looks like we might need to head into the city to find a convenience store.

Does anyone know?

That's useful. I will tell my sons what the situation is and leave it with them.

Hope you have space for that pint of milk from the UK.

Do you need a holiday Zonder? You're a bit snippy.
You have me a suggestion and I responded.

Could buy a small bottle of UHT milk to take packed up well in the case. Failing that, liberate some little cartons from an airport cafe?

I have a little stash of the milk sachets you get with McDonalds tea for this sort of emergency tea situation (they give two or three and I only need one). They're pretty good as far as UHT milk goes and they're easy to transport. Could you all have a tea en route to the airport tomorrow?!

You have the audacity to arrive in France on a Sunday evening and now you expect Macron himself to airlift you emergency coq au vin to bail you out of your own negligence!

Meanwhile back on planet earth, enjoy your holiday, motorway services are your best bet!

😁 quel horreur!
I'm sure Macron is busy with olympiques, I'm not that selfish.

I like the idea of taking a bunch of milk jiggers with me.

Just had one thanks. Took what we needed in our cases.

So looking on Google maps,there's a Chinese buffet open til.10.30pm just by the airport and several takeaway places in montpelier which is a 15 minute drive from the airport

Yes, that would be 'Quelle' horreur.
As in 'McDonald? Mais quelle horreur! Je préfère trimballer du lait frais pendant des heures, dans mon sac à main, en plein moi d'août!' 😋

I'd just eat on the way, take teabags with me and plan a Monday morning supermarket dawn raid. Job done.

I've never been to a holiday letting in Europe who hasn't left a welcome pack with milk, butter, jam and bread to be honest.

But yes get some supplies airside before you leave the UK.

Ah Sunday’s are rubbish in France! (We spend a lot of holidays there!) supermarkets close at 1230hrs and the country grinds to a holt!
we came back yesterday and can’t say we saw any milk in the service stations on the motorway….. I’d ask the hosts as milk is mainly UhT in France so it wouldn’t be any issue them getting it for you, alternatively I’d go out for dinner…. As that would solve all the problems?

We’ve just done this and got meal deals in boots after security, thst doesn’t count as your baggage allowance. Not ideal but it got the teens through the night!

But remember you aren’t allowed to bring any meat or dairy into France- fine if it’s to eat on the plane but no good for milk for Monday breakfast

I didn’t say milk, just food

It's an AirBnB and I would say it was unusual for fresh produce to be left.
I know the host is away (it's their home), but they will have a local contact.

Yes I've always had a welcome pack with Airbnb.

Could you drive via Montpelier itself - there will be some restaurants open on a Sunday evening.

Montpelier is a student city so there are a good number of later opening takeaway places as well - down near the station If I recall - not the best but probably ok for a couple of hungry young men.

This is not a terribly good idea @Ginmonkeyagain

Not sure a student town like Montpellier will necessarily have everything open in August.

I still think it's a non issue since you could eat on the plane or at the airport and take a few bits to have between arrival and bakeries opening the next morning.

Yes sorry my message was more aimed at OP in case she thought she could buy supplies for Monday airside.

Only been to northern France recently but there seemed to be vending machines for fresh pizza and sometimes baguettes in villages and supermarket car parks - bit random we thought but saw dozens of the things 🤣 if this is also a thing across the country it may be just what you need (and a bit of a novelty!)

We've recently come back from Montenegro and it's worse than France in terms of closures on a Sunday. Only petrol stations were open. We couldn't get any milk. I was really glad I took "just add water" coffee sachets and snacks. You'd think the petrol stations would take advantage of being the only shop allowed to open but they really didn't. They sold less than our petrol stations do.
I'd recommend taking with you what you can and heading out first thing on Monday for food.