Why is everything so expensive in France?

[MrsSchadenfreude]

Leg of lamb in Monoprix - around 30 euros, Dove deodorant, over 4 euros, grotty looking lump of stewing steak in supermarket, 15 euros. Satsumas worked out at over a euro each. Cannot find children's pyjamas for less than 16 euros. And don't get me started on the overpriced and scrawny chickens. I know that part of this has to do with the exchange rate and the French propping up and subsidising the farmers, but I go to the supermarket for a few bits and end up spending 50 euros on not very much at all. Rant over.

I think thereistheball has the right idea. I do come over to France or Germany every month or so and buy kilos of meat (don't tell the customs) to freeze. I also stock up on detergents etc. Do you have aprice comparison website at all? We do in Switzerland but it would just make you weep to see what is considered a bargain. I tend to buy veg at the farmer's barn, eggs there too and cheese at the cheese makers. I do buy butter in France, we don't have salted stuff and I've found one with great lumps of sea salt in. YUM.

Agree about the amazon prices, I always check on amazon uk and often it's cheaper even with delivery to Europe.

I think you have to be careful what you buy.

Lamb IS v. expensive compared to the UK, my parents are always shocked.

Teabags and Dove deodorant may be cultural things too, try some own-brand ones.

When my students go to the UK or Ireland, they find grocery shopping v. expensive, I think it's because you go for products you usually buy and haven't got your eye in for the cheaper bargains.

France probably doesn't produce as much lamb as the UK. A lot of it is imported. We tend to eat veal or pork as its cheaper and usually fairly locally produced. Same for UK-brand items - you just have to find a French equivalent (although I must admit, I DO buy English teabags as and when I see them!)
VAT is also lower in UK which definitely makes a difference. I just bought a UK laptop and it was 300 euros cheaper than the equiv. in France (sony vaio). Admittedly, it has qwerty keyboard but there are workarounds for all those French and German characters.
The only thing I really notice is kids' clothes, but then the French ones are a much better fit than English ones so sometimes it's worth paying the extra.

Just had another thought. We don't or try not to, eat too many imported foods and adapt to what is available locally and seasonally. This is doable up to a point, but dh does like english tea bags. I get PG tips in one of two indian shops that we have here (I think one is sri Lankan), they cost about 1/8th the price of typhoo in Migros.

I do fill up the car every summer on the way back from Ireland with childrens pyjamas, underwear and shoes (120 euros anyone for a fairly ordinary pair of little girls shoes?). But I do love Cyrillus for example, for the children,and buy twice a year during the sales. And because I buy there reglarly, I get lots of intersting discounts. A pity they do not stock Tetleys.

I agree that when you move country your eating habits don't evolve immediately, and you take a while to work out what is better value for money at your new destination.

My sister had a horrible shock moving from Madrid to Amsterdam - she had been used to endless fish and vegetables and found that she just couldn't afford anything like comparable quality in the Netherlands.

Veal is definitely much cheaper in France than in the UK - and so delicious!

Blimey, I haven't lived in the UK for the last 2 yrs, when did it become cheaper than France or Italy?

I'm sure when you were in England you were out hunting down Parma ham and mozzarella at inflated prices, Franca .

We all do it - which makes our destinations seem horribly expensive.

No, it wasn't the price of parma ham that shocked me in my first days in the UK (I expected that ), but the price of an ordinary (and badly done) gin and tonic. And good meat. And clothes, clothes were expensive, considered they were made of cheap fabric.

I think that for equivalent quality, the UK is often very expensive for fresh food like meat, fruit and vegetables as compared with France or Italy (or Spain - lovely quality at lovely prices!). But there is an awful lot of very cheap but not really nasty food in the UK, if you aren't terribly fussy.

Very cheap quickly becomes truly gruesome here in France.

Agree also lots of clothes in the UK are shockingly cheap and nasty and made in China.

And wine is cheap in France

The wine, baguette, cheese and pâtisserie diet is a well-recognised phenomenon among newly-arrived Anglo-Saxons, who then complain that they put on weight in France and don't understand how the natives stay so slim...

There can be a huge variation in prices and quality in France, but cheap does not always mean good. I can buy filet mignon in the butcher for ?10(!) or for about ?3 in the supermarket.

We had veal escalopes this evening - truly delicious Bonsoir.

You have to change your eating and cooking habits too, Bonsoir is right. Cooking French means you can eat a lot cheaper - their meals are different to ours - small starters, often salad or leftovers. One vegetable or carb on the side, rarely both. Cheese (and more salad, bought very cheaply in the market) and sometimes a pud of yoghurt or fruit - that is a family meal (lunch or supper) in France. A meal with friends would only be slightly fancier - with a proper starter and pud.

At this time of year a lot of the 'main' courses are made from cheap cuts of meat too. Petit sale aux lentilles, pot-au-feu, etc, etc. They are economical meals.

Other times of the year French people take advantage of what is in season and treat themselves to things like oysters, etc.

As I've only spent 3 years out of the past 20 in the UK, I don't think I have particularly "English" tastes. I used a local butcher in UK - good quality organic meat, at a reasonable price. We do eat things like petit salé aux lentilles, couscous etc, lots of salad.

I do resent paying a lot of money for a scrawny little chicken which leaks out huge amounts of yellow fat, and will only do for one meal.

Have started buying basics in Leaderprice - rice, milk, butter etc, and my lentils from Passage Brady. Am also loving Picard for frozen fish and herbs.

Thought Monoprix was more like Sainsbury's than M & S? Picard is definitely Waitrose on Ice though!

The Monoprix Gourmet chickens (about 10 euros each) are quite good and not fatty. Not quite as yummy as a proper butcher's chicken but they can get really expensive - I paid 20 euros for one on Friday (and will never return to that particular butcher again!).

Sorry MrsSchadenfreude - that was a general comment, not directed at you at all! I sound very bossy for someone who has only lived in France for nine months. I have this conversation all the time with friends - we discuss which stall in the market does the best fruit/veg, which butcher is the best/cheapest/best value, what to buy in what supermarket to save pennies here and there - so this thread is very relevant to me.

I am guilty of not being able to change my shopping habits though. DH is always ticking me off for shopping in Cora, which is huge, as opposed to the local Carrefour Market, which is pretty small as he says that Cora is a lot more expensive The selection in the Carrefour is just rubbish though, whereas the Cora stocks lots of food that I can't find anywhere else (such as chorizo, which I can't find in any other supermarket in the area).

I was just thinking earlier that there was a thread in the Food section a couple of months ago that asked how much everyone's supper had cost for that evening. I was amazed at how people manage to feed their families so cheaply in the UK.

My weekly shopping in my local sainsbos used to be around 80 pounds (more if we were buying wines, less if I bought vegetables and meat at the farmers' market, which was more expensive than the supermarkets).
My weekly shop here in Italy in Esselunga is around 80 euros.

I noticed about a year ago that my Monoprix weekly shop bill went up by 30%.,

It's possible to spend less if you buy your fruit& veg at the market and if you cook from scratch- DP just made an amazing beef stew that will last a few days- beef from Monoprix for around 5 euros!

I do find that if want to have nice steak or chicken for every meal it gets incredibly expensive. And chickens are so small!

I'll buy certain things from well known brands ie ham, meat, cheese etc, but will get Monoprix own brand for rice, herbal teas etc.

Monoprix own brands are great, I find. I hardly buy anything in Monoprix that isn't own brand - whether it be Monoprix, Monoprix Gourmet, Monoprix Bio, or their children's stuff.

Meat and dairy proucts being brought into france are supposedly restricted, but we still do it (have done for over 4 years,) as I cannot live without cheddar, sausages and proper bloody bacon!!

I used to import lots of salame into the uk

1 euro for a satsuma!

Are you sure?

Bonsoir - I did that diet when I moved to France . Am now having to undo it.

I always think it's interesting to compare the prices that certain places, including Monoprix, give you in francs as well as euros. IIRC the exchange rate was about 9fr to the £: the difference in what could be bought then compared to now is bigger than I'd ever realised. There move to the euro must have left many people in France very much worse off in real terms.

Sorry - the move to the euro...

I paid 5 euros for 5 satsumas the other week. Very smart butcher on Victor Hugo had chickens in the window this morning for 24 euros a kilo. Yes, not per chicken (which would have been bad enough) but per kilo.