Oatmeal/Porridge availability in France

[laraeo]

My family is on an extended holiday in France and DS (15 mos) is nearly out of his favorite breakfast porridge/oatmeal. He eats normal "adult" porridge/oatmeal. I've searched the supermarkets but haven't been able to find anything similar (although it could be my poor high school French). Can anyone give me a brand name or some hint about what I should be looking for?

Also, is there any kind of fruit roll sort of thing? DS eats normal fruit but the fruit bars are much less messy - not to mention more portable.

Thanks for your help.

You can get oatflakes (flocons d'avoine)in the organic bit of most large supermarkets/in health food shops. Quaker oats on the cereal shelves of some supermarkets.
Actual proper oatmeal I have never seen.
What is a fruit roll?

Yup, Quaker Oats are easy to find in supermarkets or on-line. Where are you? What supermarkets have you got available locally?

Isn't oatmeal just ground oat flakes?

I have been whizzing Quaker Oats in all my recipes that require oatmeal since I've lived here and it works fine.

I don't know what fruit roll is but if you want portable, mess free fruit then you could give him fruit purée in a pouch. Materne brand do sugar free ones. He would just have to suck it up.

I get chewy fruit bars for my kids from the organic shop (although they also like the purees too). The chewy bars are great for teething (altho' DS at two must be on his last ones now!).
If you have a leader price (supermarket) near you they have an own brand of oats that is much cheaper than quaker oats - usually with the breakfast cereals.

Are you American laraeo? I only ask because I think you might mean what we Brits call rolled oats (as AuldAliiance says, 'flocons d'avoine'). Isn't 'oatmeal' in American English the same as 'porridge' in the UK, rather than 'proper' oatmeal (all ground into tiny dots)?

Ooh, am off to grind some oatflakes and see if it'll make porridge like my mum's.

You can get bananas here, if it's portable & mess-free you're after

ok, I'll take that back!!

Okay, you caught me being all American-like. Yes, it's rolled oats I'm after- Quaker oats would be fab but I've yet to find them. We've been in various Carrefour, Intermarche, SuperU to no avail. At least now I know what to look for en Francais. I don't think we've been in a real hypermarche yet but then I could be wrong not since I don't really have anything to compare the stores we've be in to.

Right now we're staying outside Chamonix and are headed to Dijon for a couple days next week. I've been looking in the foreign food/health food/cereal sections to no avail and unfortunately, DH doesn't feel like taking a tour of every French supermarket. I'd thought about health food stores but again, not knowing what I was looking for would have made that a waste of time.

I've got some of the squeezy fruit purees to add to what's left of DS's rolled oats.

I'm not sure how to describe a fruit roll/bar. We usually get the Organix brand in the UK and it's just compressed fruit - usually apple based with the addition of bananas/dates/etc.

Speaking of banana, DS has one/day and it is definitely not the mess-free dining experience you'd think it would be. Squeezing fruit directly into his mouth might be better but DS is the messiest eater ever - he has the charming tendency to put food in his mouth and then stick his hands in after it, spit it out, look at it and then eat it again.

Again, thanks for your help.

Was being tongue in cheek about the banana. Sorry.
A common brand is Bjorn, they make loads of organic stuff. Can't find a pic of the packaging, sadly.
In HyperU and Champion in our town they aren't with the other breakfast cereal but with random organic stuff.
HTH

I've definitely bought Quaker Oats in Monoprix before now, in the cereals section, next to the Jordan's .

But I don't think I've bought a fruit bar thingy in my life! The fruit purées you get here in yoghourt style pots or squeezy bags are quite good, from what I remember. And my DD loves the strawberry flavoured fromage frais that you suck out of a bag.

If you are driving back via Geneva look out for a large MMM(orange sign) Migros supermarket on the Swiss/French border near the airport - they would definitely stock plain oats etc.

We went in to Geneva today and I saw the MMM sign - if it was just me, I'd have stopped, but DH was on a mission to get back to our apartment. Perhaps I can convince him to stop on our way to Dijon.

Thanks for the brand name, AuldAlliance and the names of some more supermarkets Bonsoir Anna.

I feel so stupid trying to buy rolled oats but it's one of the few things I can sneak a good portion of dairy into since he's not keen on plain milk. (Luckily he's quite fond of his yogurt too).

A bientot!

You really can find everything online.
Scroll down here for an artistic view of a pack of Bjorn oatflakes.
Apologies if the blog is in any way offensive, I have no idea what it's about. One of the captions seems to suggest that if you eat the oatflakes with jordgubbssylt and UHT-mjölk, then they are "Mums!"
Seemes very appropriate for MN, if a little mysterious.

SUCCESS!!!

There's a genuine Carrefour hypermarche and I found the Bjorg flocons d'Avoine - it looks just like the picture . I guess that makes me a Mum. Hooray! DS doesn't know how lucky he is.

Thank you again for all your help!