cost of food in FRENCH SUPERMARKETS- just how expensive will it be this year...

[noonar]

... thanks to the terrible exchange rate? have already accepted that we are unlikely to eat out during our holiday to the dordogne, but will i want to weep at the supermarket checkout?

any tips on what's still good value/ what to avoid/ take with us( we are camping), would be greatly appreciated.

tia

bump

ah noonar hello
we are taking a lot, namely:
passata
dried pasta
tinned tuna( for lunch)
we alwyas take mayo olive oil balsamic( that is open anyway just bung it in a freezer bag)
cereals
our fave cofee
squash( holiday treat)
crisps and biscuits( can be scoffed en route to stave off boredom)

take boring stuff then you can buy treats this year. Every year i say " right I am goign to treat myself to a session in a patisserie" adn every year it gets missed off

thanks badger. good tips. is passata sauce etc really that exp or are you just trying to avoidbuying store cupboard stuff that you have at home anyway?

also, as we're lentil weavers, i thought i'd bring packs of dried soya mince and felafel mix etc oh, and of cousre, lentils.

Hmm, i presume by means of an exchange rate everything is but yes thats a good point
we are ina chalet so have a fridge freezer so we always buy a box of ice creams to save us money buying bob leponges at the shop/

actually, badger, we're only camping for 4 days, then switch to a posh mobile home with deck etc.

like your ice cream idea, but dds really like the ritual of going to get their ice creams from camp shop, so not sure i'd get away with that!

yes i was the same til skinflint dh said that if we do that then they can have takeaway campsite pizza!

gosh your mobile home will feel like a des res

which site are you off to

ah... sponge bob... now i get ya.

Um, well we're in Belgium so didn't have to suffer the exchange rate but France was definitely cheaper!

I lost track with UK prices, but our first shop cost 120 euros. This was for:

Salad (lots), fruit (lots), potatoes, onions, ham and cheese, butter, milk.

5 litre wine box plus 24 beers and a bottle of cognac. Bottled water and Orangina.

Pasta, pasta sauce, biscuits, crisps, bread, cereal.

A pizza, fish fingers, beef burgers, a load of kebabs, chops, chicken etc for bbqing.

I had a trolley FULL fwiw. We went for 2 weeks and I only did top up shoppng after that - more butter, ham, water, beer etc and we bought fresh bread every day.

palombiere sarlat. are you in that part of france?

yes, that was the idea. make the mobile home seem really nice by providing a contrasting experience for us all before hand

it was all In The Plan then
we are on the SW coast.

portofino, thats really useful. we spend about £100 ish on our main shop at home (per week- 4 of us) and i was worried france would be massively more exp.

I took oil, washing powder, toiletries, salt and pepper, salad cream....

oh eys all that - scourers j cloths loo roll

yes badger, it was kinda. but more to do with wanting the dds to expereience a tent but knowing i couldnt cope with peeing in a bucket for a fortnight. ( am up loads in the night!!) anyway, sorry, TMI. coast sounds nice... maybe we shouldve done a 2 centre...

but dont they produce olive oil in france? isnt that a bit like taking coals to newcastle? lol, i just remembered a mad woman i met in lefkas who took a litre of extra virgin TO greece with her on hols in her hand luggage- wtf! (in the days when you could...)

I think if you spend 100 quid a week, that works out about 120 euros so you should be fine. We weren't exactly adding it up as we went along....holiday splurging and all that...We were in Languedoc so probably cheaper "on the whole" compared to the Dordogne, but if you find an Auchan/Carrefour your groceries shouldn't be much different. It can be easy to get carried away in Auchan as they have such fabulous stuff!

yes but if we have it at home anwyay we just bung it in

If there is a choice of supermarkets near where you are going try ED if there isn't a Lidl. It is the same kind of non-label thing but with a proper meat counter and veg section.

Where we live - Alps - Geant and HyperU are thought to be expensive compared to Leclerc.

For wine go visit a wine merchant if you can, they will let you try before you buy and make up a box for you. Works out cheaper for nicer wine than the supermarket.

thanks. will return to this thread when packing

Wish we had a Carrefour.

Will watch with interest . Last year we ended up buying mini portions of sugar - lots of them - so will take that back again ! Plus oil , ketchup, kitchen towel, loo roll, washing up liquid, teabags, washing and dw tablets .... may as well come out of our cupboard as buy again.

btw would be interested if anyone notices a reduction in vat on meals out which apparently went through recently but there is no obligation for restauranteurs to pass on

LIZS - you'll be lucky. Absolutely no difference that I can tell.
In a news report before the change one chap was saying if the VAT was decreased he could employ loads more staff - as if suddenly he would be more busy and be need more staff, course not goes straight in the till more like.

We just came back last week and I thought it was so much more expensive than here. A cooked chicken was 14 euros- they're £2 today in Morrisons. The markets were dearer than the supermarkets- didn't stop us tho ! Best things we found were cherries at about 3 euros a kilo- we eat loads,peaches and nectarines were cheap too. We were on Il de Re, which is supposed to be slightly more expensive than the mainland. Shellfish good value as local- but I'm the only one who likes it- huge prawns 4 euros/kilo

4 croissants every morning from camp shop 4 euros.

Luckily we had taken stuff too, was our first time camping so was chuffed I'd done that.

Petrol(well diesel) cheaper too.