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

We go to France every year (unimaginative emoticon) and this year it's just sooo expensive.

Avoid treats from the traiteur and all forms of cooked foods. Take as much as you can with you - household stuff is expensive. So detergent for clothes washing might seem a bit painful to pack but take it anyway. Also salt and pepper and ketchup and mayonnaise should be taken. And stuff like sponges and washing up cloths and teatowels. On no account buy teabags in France.

It's not all bad news though. The coffee is reasonable, the bottled water and wine ditto. Oils and vinegars are cheaper than the UK I think. Fresh fruit and vegetables can't be taken with you but are generally better here. Cheese and saucisson etc still good. Lidl and Leclerc are fine here (Cannes). You can actually freeze leftover baguettes - which seems slightly heretical to me - but works fine.

There was an article on the TV yesterday saying that UK visitors to France have reduced significantly due to the relative weakness of sterling. Some hotels are reporting occupancy rates 50% down. So you might be able to negotiate a good deal somewhere if you fancy a night in a chambre d'hote or something on the way back.

Have not noticed a reduction in prices on meals out at ALL. Also I think that some municipal stuff that used to be such good value in France seems to cost more. Dunno if this is due to some cost-cutting in the (enormous) French public sector. So tennis courts seem to be a lot more expensive (tennis 12 Euros an hour this year - 8 Euros last year).

Have lots of fun

Sammac, we're just back from the Loire, and I found the supermarkets really expensive too. Meat was very expensive (although Loire raost chickens were only 10 euros!)

Baguette, croissants etc 1 euro each, and ice cream were 3 euros at the site shop! Cakes from a patisserie / cafe were 4-5 euros.

Fruit, wine and cheese were cheap, so that was good.

Re reduction in vat - most restaurants have reduced a couple of dishes (literally), often the prix fixe children's meal.

Diesel very cheap - down to 93 cents a litre last week at supermarkets (petrol about 1.25 though )

Meat is def more expensive there, also milk; bread etc reasonable; local wine incredibly cheap; basic beer about 5.50 for 24 small bottles; 6 x 2-litre (or is it 1.5 litre?) water v cheap, but DO NOT buy branded water in cafes!

We didn't find the VAT decrease at restaurants made much diff either (but there are minimum compliance requirements like 7 items on the whole menu )

Oh, Carrefour had a box of 12 mini Magnum-type lollies for 1.99 - that went down well with us!

Olive oil was expensive

Agree that meat is more expensive - was horrified by how cheap chicken was in Tesco today.

But you're hardly going to take meat, are you? [boggles at thought]

I wouldn't worry so much about saving 5p on pasta sauce but would take things that you would have to rebuy, as others have suggested (ie 1 j cloth, 1 roll kitchen roll, some sugar, oil)>

have a good holiday

When you eat out, always go for the "menus" and not a la carte.

I noticed UK visitors ordering like that and it costs loads more.

It's always cheaper to get the 3 courses or the special.

And (final post, honest!) we took cereal, tuna, ketchup, detergent & fabric rinse, peanut butter & teabags, used almost all of it & left the rest behind (so had more space left for wine, beer etc on return journey )

Produce good & reasonable, & our local Hyper Casino had the most amazing misting counter for the salad, which was like walking through a fog when no-one had been there for a few minutes - that was fun!

Just found a till receipt from the other week....

88c for a litre of milk
2.50 for a couple of pork chops
1.46 for a box of Quaker oats (dd loves porridge)
1.65 for 50 crappy tea bags
2.32 for 6 delish ice-cream bars
30c each for a kiwi fruit

At the boulangerie I pay
85c for a baguette
75c for a croissant

possibly not a very typical shopping list and I don't know how it compares to UK at the mo.

This is really useful - thank you all. We're off to Provence next month with my brother and his partner and I'm getting ridiculously excited. DB will be paying for the meals out, though, so that's sorted.

Good news about the diesel. I'm towing my caravan down to the med in august and was hoping to save a bit on fuel this year. There is a lidl and an ed's where we go so shall be shopping there . I can't wait! The wine is cheap, I shall be mostly drinking rose at 1 euro a bottle.

Just got back from Bergerac and we spent the same as we would here at home. Wouldn't seem so bad if we couldn't remember previous years where we could get 3 bottles of wine for a few francs. [/old gimmer exaggeration]

We tended to eat 'at home' and go out for drinks and pudding. Have lovely holidays all!

We are just back from the outskirts of St Tropez and we really really noticed the prices had gone up

Luckly there was a rather large Geant near us so we shopped there most of the time, but we still spent much more than we had budgeted for food

Hey sherby , we're off down there! Where did you stay? The lidl and Eds are in Cogolin.

£2 for a cooked chicken in morrisons [boaking sidetracked emoticon]

just eat lentils for a fornight before and after and enjoy yourself while you are there.

bon vacanes

OOO we were near Cogolin, we stayed at La Croix Valmer it is just near Cavalaire.

Hope you have a good time!

I know Croix. We are on the coast between Port Grimaud and Ste. Maxine. Was it you're first time down there? I've been going for about 40 years!

No, my MIL has a holiday home there

I love St Maxime, we went to the waterpark there the DC loved it. And l'escale beach too one of our favourites

v jealous, wish we were going back this year

I'll think of you, we're there for 4 weeks! I do hope there are no jellyfish this year. I did hear a shark was spotted at Antibes!

Have just had a nostalgic (sigh...sob...) rummage through my supermarket receipts (not being anal, am saving them all to check off against credit card statement when it comes through!)

Carrefour own label Orangina: 0.65
Orangina Grenadine version: 1.75
baguette: 0.42
1 litre Candia fresh milk: 1.20 (long-life semiskim much cheaper)
1 large red pepper: 0.32
250g butter: 0.95
flute: 0.70
cucumber: 0.75
6 eggs: 1.68 (barn eggs I think)
balsamic vinegar: 3.41
olive oil (ordinary kind, not a huge bottle): 5.79
4 jam doughnuts: 2.90 (didn't notice before buying)
4 red onions in a net: 3.70 (ditto)

generally when we bought eg sausages to barbecue they were over 5 euro for 4 people (good though)

Lots of little jellyfish at l'escale!

OMG! The kids do enjoy catching as many as they can though and it does fill a day or two!

blowbroth, diesel was upwards of 1.12 at the Aires - still only about the same as here at current exchange rates, but if you can go off the autoroute & find a supermarket you will save a lot!

Also worth finding a supermarket just before you get ferry/tunnel back - we were pushing to catch an earlier one (which we missed anyway ) so had to buy diesel near Folkestone instead & it was £1.09

Thanks Ponders.

ponders, where did you go? Were you camping?