Those just back from France ...

[LIZS]

can you pass on any tips please re. keeping costs down, driving and what to take/leave at home (self catering)

geekgirl, how was your trip? . We had a great time apart from a slight problem with fleas in the gite

eek this is getting complicated ! dh only got 2 jackets so is that ok or not (4 in car). Do we need paperbit of licence or just the card ? Car is company leased so we have their Green Card instead of V5 . Not sur eoif we have spare bulbs but do ahve deflectors, first aid kit and triangle .

Agree with BecauseI'mWorthIt about cornflour and cheddar cheese (but am baffled as to why you would be doing that kind of cooking on holiday ) but risotto rice, parmesan and Indian spices are readily available in any Monoprix.

The law on triangles and hi-vis vests has been in force since 1 July but the police are not able to fine anyone until 1 October so if you get stopped and do not have the necessary equipment, they just advise you of the requirements.

Proper cheddar is knowns as 'cheddar fermier' and you can get occasionally get it in the bigger hypermarkets. I agree that some recipes taste better with cheddar so after a trip to the UK always bring some back for macaroni cheese and welsh rarebit. But I do find it a bit strange to take it on holiday, especially to a country with so much delicious cheese. I would rather not do without cheddar for the rest of my life but surely you can survive without it for a couple of weeks!

x-posts Anna

Cornflour is sold under the Maizena brand. I have no trouble getting it. After all, it is an essential ingredient in fondue savoyarde.

Marina, thanks, we had a good time The journey went really well, hardly any traffic on the way down.
The villa was a bit rubbish (although thankfully no fleas, poor you - we had house centipedes instead) but we had a nice time, the area was absolute stunning and there was so much to see.

The "Monoprix Gourmet" own brand range is fabulous value, btw - very high quality at great prices. Try the cheeses - they are much cheaper than at the cheese shop for comparable quality.

Trouble is Monoprix is not readily available in rural France though anna .
I suppose there might have been one in Cherbourg or St Lo but we stuck with the excellent Champion in the local village for anything we didn't get in the markets
LIZS, you do need the bulbs and I would take enough hi-vi jackets for everyone in the car. I agree with oi that they are a great idea and I wish we had them here, tbh. I think in general we could learn a lot from the French way of motoring - we covered over 1500 miles in a fortnight and 99% of that was a pleasure.
If you are going anywhere popular with the Brits (we were in Western Normandy) you will find that they will have made a seasonal effort and have sort-of-fresh organic milk (according to Ouest-France we apparently cannot survive without this as a nation), ketchup and Kelloggs breakfast cereals. You can also get much better brown sliced bread than of yore although it is still v. droopy.

loads of good tea in supermarkets!

The brown sliced bread in supermarkets is revolting. Has all kinds of hideous ingredients.
The bakery with slice 'pain complet' for you - so much tastier.

Monoprix tends to be in all the nicer towns - the ones you are likely to visit as a tourist.

The on the spot fine thing really bugs me in France. I was caught, but I was pretty sure I hadn't gone over the speed limit. I was being very careful. When I asked to see a photo they said that didn't have to show me any proof. I was frogmarched to a cash till and handed over cash, they refused to give me a receipt even. They said if I wanted to complain they would impound the car and I'd have to wait for a court date to plead my case in court. The French traffic police are Nazi bastards. I hate them!

lots of nice packaged bread - go for Harrys Bread - yum

But the bakery bread is great as well

Harry's American Sandwich - brown & white

I got into a bit of a flap with the what to have in the car thing do went into Halfords, they have everything you need in one place so I got the triangle, 4 vests, fire estinguisher, head light thing and spare bulb kit (had to be ordered) in one go. It was expensive £73, but I think really they are all sensible things to have in a car etc and we have them now so don't need to worry for next year.

I then had the photo and paper bits of our licence, v5, insurance documents and details of the breakdown policy in a bag which we took out every time we left the house (apart from when DH forgot it and scuppered our attempt to get to
the Normandy horse show). The people who owned the gite said they had heard they were pulling cars with gb plates. We did see them once at a roundabout by Vire but they were pulling cars going onto the motorway and we were taking another exit so were fine.

We struggled a bit with shops being open on the Sunday and Monday but finally found a tiny little shop on the Monday afternoon and made do with (and I am very embarrassed to admit this on MN) Macdonalds for one meal. We had taken a fair bit over with us in an ice box but mostly for DH who is veggie so were a bit stuck for the children. However Mcdonalds did have money off voucher on receipt for Champrepus zoo so we saved 6 Euros on entrance then with the tickets got 8 euros off somewhere else. We then ran into problems on the Friday when we were trying to stock up for the ferry home as apparently it was a bank holiday. So I would say to be a little more organized than us.

Also, petrol in the middle of nowhere is a lot more than in the bigger places, we paid 1.51 then saw it loads cheaper at the port.

Message withdrawn

We've been to Brittany (North & South) and Normandy on more occasions than I can remember and have never come across a Monoprix!

I do agree that it goes against the grain to bring cheese to France, but when the kids were little and we were self-catering on the cheap, macaroni cheese was a staple. And the little blighters angels could always tell when it was made with emmenthal!

Think the cornflour was to make sweet and sour sauce - instead of just buying a can/jar I had make life difficult by trying to make my own.

Having said all this, I hate the 'British' section in the supermarket, and the implication that we can't go for a fortnight without salad cream or piccalilli or whatever other shit they put there.

ok dh has now, if somewhat reluctantly and cursing Mnetters for stressing me out along the way, got spare bulbs (anyone returned theirs unused afterwards?!). Found insurance and green reg document. Are we good to go ?

LOL! i am a fan of monoprix. when we passed one on holiday i found myself thinking that anna would be sure to look down on monoprix...

agree that everything felt much more expensive this time due to dismal exchange rate. having vowed not to do any picnics this year, we then got fed up of paying a fortune for very indifferent food. we ate much, much better for the same price a few weeks ago in cornwall.

we didn't do the hi vis vest. cue dh saying "merde, les flics!" every time the police were sighted. btw - that is his idea of a joke

And if it's a company car, make sure that you have permission from the company, in writing, for you to take the car abroad.

We have the green "vehicle on hire" document which gives company details.

Just like here, markets are often cheaper than supermarkets for fruit and veg. Lots of small towns have a weekly one.

Glad I'm not the only one who has very reluctantly (and with great embarassment) taken cheddar cheese to France because the DCs would eat no other. I tried Cantal on them and they refused it.

yes nad bcaon
and sausages
we had a thread on this recnetly

Hmmm, sausages - might as well just stay at home. France does produce some nice sausages, btw. They are not exactly Walls bangers, but pretty tasty.