Questions about cows milk in France

[suwoo]

My parents have emigrated to France (Brittany). We are going for our 1st visit next week and I wanted to check something my mum told me. DS is a milk monster and unfortunately won't settle at night without milk. My mum said milk is hard to come by and expensive there and they have UHT. She has suggested that we take formula for DS (19 months), is she right about this?

You can get pasteurised cows milk in the bigger supermarkets. I think the Candia brand is one that provides it.
You can give UHT to your DS (unless of course he thinks it tastes different). DCs here were brought up on UHT but drink pasteurised no probs when we are in UK.

I think milk will be availible in every supermarket you find both fresh and UHT, might be worth finding out the translation for semi skimmed, full etc so you can get the same as he usually has. Can't remember it being astonisingly expensive either. If he is used to cows milk UHT would have a closer taste anyway than formula. But don't worry they do have fresh milk. Perhaps your mum could sus out what was what with the different shaped cartons and words .

Depends on what their local shops are like - we get organic fresh cow's milk at one of the local supermarkets, the other only has UHT or non-organic.

There is also raw milk available at the health food store and the market, but that is fairly expensive, and I would hesitate to give it to ds without boiling it first (it's incredibly nice though!)

This is a small town btw.

I'm in Brittany and you can get fresh milk in all the supermarkets, in holiday times though get there early because it's generally the Brits who drink it and it can sell out quickly. My DS's were milk monsters too before we moved here, but the fresh milk must be pasteurised differently here (it has a shelf life of about two weeks which I find bizarre)and we all found it had a funny taste so stopped drinking it by the glass and have now actually moved onto the skimmed UHT because it's the least creamy. I find French milk very creamy (yuk) and funnily enough now that we drink the UHT the DS' have started drinking milk again.

But don't worry you can get fresh milk, just don't make the mistake of buying Ribot - really do need a vomiting emoticon now - foul stuff which the Bretons drink loads of whilst dunking their bread into it.

They have an Aldi, and a Lidl in the village and a LeClerc nearby. What is the translation for full fat cows milk then please?

Fresh milk is about the same price as the UK as well, not that expensive, and you can get organic milk in all the supermarkets I go to as well.

lait entier - whole milk
lait demi-ecreme - semi-skimmed
ecreme - skimmed

sorry don't know how to put the accents in on the pc

I never had a problem getting fresh milk when I lived in France, even the tiny supermarket around the corner had it so it isn't limited to the hypermarches.

Aldi and Lidl only do UHT (well mine do) but you shouldn't have a problem with Leclerc. I can even get fresh milk in my boulangerie.

what's the prob with UHT?

sorry, obviously it tastes different but I think babies don't know the difference.

I think just the taste is the only prob- don't know if DS will be bothered though??

my DS doesn't care, we always have UHT. Similar probs here in Spain.

Spoke to my mum today about this and she said that, she did think 'normal' milk was pricey and it only came in litre bottles, not the big 6 pint ones like in the UK. Should I just try him on UHT do you reckon?

We live in Brittany and all our supermarkets have fresh pasteurised milk - the Bridel brand is available in most of Brittany. The red-top one is full-fat.

It's no more expensive than UHT, IME. Yes it does usually only come in litre bottles, though I have seen 2 litre bottles of the Candia brand in the biggest hypermarkets.