You can learn a lot about a country and its people by taking a stroll down the aisles of a grocery store. Grocery stores in France are awesome and range from your little neighborhood markets to giant hyper markets that have everything (almost) your heart desires. I love going to the supermarket — it’s the prices I’m not too in love with though — and while nothing is too shocking now, there have been quite a few culture shock moments over the past couple of years.
Click for my top culture shock moments at grocery stores in France!
Culture shock moments at grocery stores in France
You can buy horse meat? And rabbit that, uh, still looks like a rabbit?
I’m all about being open to new things but there’s a limit when it comes to tasting new foods. My limit is horse meat. I don’t know if it’s because I rode horses growing up or the fact I used to watch Mr. Ed with my grandparents, but horse meat is just not an acceptable dinner option for me. Not now, not ever.
I will say it’s not super common but every once in a while, you see fresh horse meat on promo at the grocery store and the first time was shocking. Most recently, rabbit meat shocked me. Not because it was on the shelf but because it still had eyes and seemed to be treated very roughly, leaving the mangled animal all contorted in the package. Listen, I’m not a vegetarian but if we’re going to eat them, I think it’s important that we treat animals with as much respect as possible from the farm to our plate. In recent times, I’ve given a lot of thought to eating more plant based.
Wow, there’s a lot of yogurt.
An entire aisle in French grocery stores is dedicated to yogurt and little desserts. When I say there are a lot of choices, it’s no joke And they’re all so GOOD! From regular yogurts to ones made with various types of milk and organic ones and those with fruit on the bottom and every variation you can imagine in between, I am not exaggerating when I say the French really do LOVE their yogurt. I love the selection and the cute little cups they come in!
Why can’t I find any blueberries? (or any other fruit out of season)
France, like many nations around the world, makes do with in-season produce. They’re masters at taking advantage of the local harvests and using the produce that’s available to them at any given time of year. So this means you won’t be able to find strawberries in January or cherries in March like we sometimes can in the US at astronomical prices. Eating produce that’s in season is better on the environment and your wallet, not to mention the produce is usually fresher and tastes better. When you move to France, you learn to eat the produce of the season and I’m OK with that.
You’re paying by check?!
I wrote about this in a general culture shock in France post, but yes, in 2019, many people still pay for things with paper checks! This happened just the other day actually and is a common sight. These check paying types will hold up the line while they carefully fill out their check and wait for the cashier to validate it and no one seems to care that it’s 2019 and we’re writing out checks like it’s 1995. Except me apparently.
Why are the milk and eggs not refrigerated?
The first thing I noticed about French grocery products was that milk and eggs are on the shelf and not refrigerated. Once you open your bottle of milk, it goes in the fridge until you’re done with it, but not the eggs. To save counter space, you can absolutely refrigerate the eggs, but it’s not necessary at all. I still feel weird buying my milk and eggs at room temperature but I haven’t gotten sick yet so I roll with it. And yes, I know the reason why both aren’t refrigerated, but just pointing it out in case you go looking in the refrigerated section of the French grocery store and can’t find what you’re looking for.
That chicken is how much?
Sweet Jesus is chicken expensive in France. Chicken was an economical meal option back home and you could grab a pack of normal chicken breasts for a few bucks per pound on promo. In France, it’s rare to find chicken for less than 10 euros/kg — and that’s on the cheap side. Most of the time chicken breasts cost a lot more than that, like 15 euros/kg or even more (which is give or take US$8-10/pound depending on the exchange rate and type of chicken… organic is even more).
Granted, the chicken is excellent and there are all kinds of farm raised chickens and this and that, but even just regular chicken isn’t cheap. Same goes for beef. If you want cheap, stick with pork. And another thing about chicken: The French will look at you funny if you wash your chicken before cooking it. In the U.S., we’d commonly rinse and dry the chicken breasts after coming out of the package before cooking it, but not here.
What’s shocked you about grocery stores in France?
Want more culture shock? Here’s a post on faux pas and my big list of France culture shock moments for your reading pleasure. 😉
This post is spot on! The yoghurt aisle(s) in French grocery stores are unimaginable until you’ve been and are so incredible, a yoghurt lover’s dream! I also hated those people who paid with cheques, just can’t figure out why it’s a thing in France.
The only reason I can think of for why someone would pay by check is if they don’t have a debit card. In France banking is stupidly expensive and the card itself is 20 euros upfront not to mention monthly fees and online banking costs. So maybe people just pay with checks when they don’t have a debit card (since paper checks deduct money from their account as well). Only thing I can think of….
I think you’re right, it must be people who don’t have a card (or occasionally the card “puce” doesn’t work) but I rarely see a young person or even “young” like me writing a cheque, it’s always “seniors” and perhaps they are also just used to doing it like that, old habits die hard.
I see people of all ages writing checks, mostly 40s-50s though. And I often see people in their 70s and older using debit cards. So I think we should all get on board. 😉 I understand paying by check at the doc when there’s no credit card terminal but at the grocery store where paying by card is easiest? Ugh people haha
Maybe the Côte d’Azuriens are more with it, I really don’t see young people using cheques here! And of course most older people use cards but I agree it is crazy in this age to faff around at the check out with a cheque, having to produce an ID, have it verified etc. I always sigh when I think I’ve chosen a short queue only to find the person in front is paying by cheque! Thanks for linking this to #AAF
One reason I can think of is that by paying by check, the debit on your account is very likely to occur around one week later. It can be useful if your account is low and you expect some income in the meantime, like your monthly salary.
Yup, makes sense. Definitely an explanation
That post is old but as a French I was about to give this exact explanation. I’ve rarely seen people with filled up bank accounts pay by check tbh.
oh yes, I miss my (cheap) yoghourts!! (and the ham…)
Checks are free in France. I always had my checkbook with me. I was quite surprised when I discovered I had to pay $6 to have a sheet of 3 checks. TWO DOLLARS for a check!!! no wonder why Americans use them sparingly 😉
As for the meat, I wash it here, even though I didn’t in France. The juices the chicken breasts come in are rather disgusting!
You miss French ham??!?!?! The 4 slices you get in a Fleury Michon package? I hate that stuff! Give me fresh-sliced Boar’s Head from the deli any day. I miss my cold cuts so bad!
Fleury-Michon or Herta is backup plan. The luxury version would be the one they cut in front of you. but even the one in plastic tastes so much better than everything I find here: always full of sugar and water…
I remember the first time seeing pigeon and horse in the grocery store.
Yuck, I can be open minded up until a point. Horse, no way in hell hahaha
Well, we’re getting ready to start our 6th year of living abroad so I’ve learned to do without a lot of things now and I really don’t mind. I like eating only seasonal items and if I want strawberries for my breakfast smoothies, I buy frozen ones in winter.
One of the biggest culture shocks in Turkey was being able to buy a sheep’s head from your local butcher. There’s a special Turkish soup that uses it. And a few butchers that would only specialize in bones or offal. So different!
One of our Polish restaurants has horse tartare on the menu and we finally tried it. The horse meat was delicious and more mild than beef. We liked it! 🙂 But I know people, esp. Americans, are still squeamish about it.
Oh man, and I thought rabbit carcasses were bad… but a sheep’s head? YIKES. Not sure I’d go near that. Have you tried the soup?
Yeah, same with horse meat. Just a mental block. Pets are not to be eaten. Wouldn’t eat dog or cat either!
Yes I miss yogourts so much here in the US….. Please, can I have other yogourt than vanilla, plain and blueberry?
Some people (but a few) pay by check in France for 2 reasons :
– they loose/forgotten their credit card and don’t have any cash.
– they don’t have a lot of money. When you pay by check, it take 2 or 3 day to take from your account, so some people have time to put money on their account before the check. By credit card, the money is taken on the day after.
The milk is UHT (more than pasteurized) you can keep it out of fridge if you don’t open the bottle (after that put it in the fridge). For the eggs, I always put them in my fridge.
Like Cal-expat, I miss the ham too… I don’t like the US ham at all (no taste, just water).
I think the US has a decent yogurt selection depending on where you shop. Definitely more so now than 10 years ago. There are Greek yogurts (FAGE is my favorite brand) and a brand called Siggi’s I think it is makes great stuff. Try Whole Foods for a bigger selection — they may have more French-style yogurts. 😉
That’s an interesting explanation about checks. It would seem that a lot of people regularly forget/lose their debit card or don’t have a lot of money.
For the check, I think it’s less common than 10 years ago.
I ALWAYS forget to weigh my produce in the produce section!
Yes and then you have to run back like a fool to weigh it and everyone in line stares at you. Don’t you think they’d just be able to take care of it for you at the register? The silly part is it’s not the same in every store — some the cashier weighs it and some places you weigh it and get a sticker. I can never keep the two straight!
Hehe. Yes, I ave too many culture shock moments to count, but one of my lasting disappointments is the tea, which is usually insipid, and, because I am English and therefore drink milk in said tea, the ubiquity of UHT milk, which is sweet and jammed full of chemicals and horrible. This is even more surprising when you consider that we are in the birthplace of pasturisation…
I’m more of a coffee gal so I don’t know good English tea and milk from the bad, but it does seem weird that French milk is no good. Do you ever get the refrigerated stuff? When I want “good” milk that’s what I get. None of that room temp nonsense in the rectangular cartons!
We only buy chicken at LIDL or Aldi anymore. Meat is always so randomly priced, even at the same grocery stores in different towns! The produce limitations are brutal, but we know they’re good for us, too. 🙂
We have a new DIA in town and it’s a great store! I give ’em 2 thumbs up. Similar to LIDL. We’re lucky that one of Tom’s coworkers owns a chicken farm so she’ll take orders from the whole office and then bring in a trunk full of whole chickens ready to go a few weeks later. They’re cheaper than the grocery store — farm to table literally. So that helps cut down on the cost of chicken. Have a good weekend!
When I first went to get yogurt, I was stunned at all the options! Took me forever to pick one! Milk on a shelf freaks me out a bit. Love from #AllAboutFrance
oh yes, sometimes I get all indecisive in the yogurt aisle. i can pick my bread no problem. juice, no problem there. but i get mesmerized by all the yogurt varieties and I swear I’ve stood there for a good five minutes just looking hahah
The yogurt selection is great, but don’t forget to check out the cheese section – it is always AMAZING ! As is the wine section… both staples of everyday life in France.
I love looking at all the cheese’s too. Most grocery stores seem to have the regular commercial cheese aisle where the cheeses are in packs with wrappers and big brand names and then another section closer to the butcher (in my store anyway) where they’re hunks cut off from the big round of cheese separately packaged and weighed. I tend to find local varieties there too. So many good ones!
Great blog, and spot on! What always makes me giggle (or is that pull my hair out) about the French in supermarkets, is that if they are buying a few items for someone else too, they have to put it through separately. Now me, I’d just put it on my bill, keep the receipt, & show the person I’d done the shopping how much it was. But not the French, it has to be done separately, even if it’s just 1 bottle of milk!!! Popped across from #AllAboutFrance x
Thank you, glad you enjoyed the post! Yes, I’ve seen people buying groceries for others and the only thing I can think of about the receipt is if they’re professionals (nurses or domestic carers or something) and they have to submit that to their company for reimbursement. I mean if it’s you casually buying a few things for a neighbor, it can all go on one receipt in my opinion but if it’s a pro service, I can understand the need to be rung up separately. But yes any holdups in the line get under my skin!
Hey! I just spent 6 months in the US so it’s nice to see what an american can think about our culture.
Concerning the milk, you can be safe drinking non-refrigerated milk because it is an “UHT milk” that means it was boiled in an “ultra high temperature” unlike the american milk that is just pasteurized. So actually, it is even safer to drink french milk 🙂
Even if we also have big battery farms as in the US there is a lot of rules enacted by EU and producers have to follow it so I think the price is linked to this fact. I remember how hard it was to find in the US, a meat (chicken, beef…) without any antibiotics or proteins so maybe it is a good think at the end.
If you love Yogurts maybe you should go to Germany, ’cause it is crazier! And they have a lot of choice for the rice milk as well !!
I am so relieved to read here about not being able to get out of season veg. I talked about that in a blog recently and got a couple of “no, you’re wrong” comments and it quite upset me. Keep telling it like it is, even if you’re just talking about cherries!
Hi Janet, sometimes people are weird. Even when I share my personal experiences (and am sure to say this is my experience, yours may be different), people like to chime in and say I’m wrong. There’s a lot of regional variation in France and I think it’s easier to get out of season produce in large cities, but still it’s nowhere near what it was in the USA. Good or bad, just my observations. It’s one thing to be critical respectfully or say “in my experience, that hasn’t been the case…” and another thing entirely to flat out tell someone they’re wrong when it’s about something subjective. I’ve got your back 😉 And I hope you finally did find what you were looking for!
Thank you Diane, I like your style!
It’s not because some people pay by checks that all the French do the same. The vast majority of people use credit cards in France. Come in the real world, please.
Of course not all French people pay with checks — maybe it’s more common outside major cities out where I live. But many do and I’ve been in line behind them waiting for them to sign their checks. When compared with the USA, you’ll find a lot more people paying for things by check in France. At least that’s been the case in my research. 😉
TL;DR: SANITARY ADVICE
you do not want to wash meat.
I just enjoyed the post, but did not read the numerous comments, so that might be a double: but, please for your sake,
Why you do NOT want to rinse your meat
because you spread the germs and even splash then with the tiny-tiny droplets even out of the sink: whereas what you intend is to cook safe and sanitary. Thus, what you want to do is to put la viande directly in the cooking dish, and to use soap immediately on your hands and whatever had touched raw meat.
That is even more true to chicken and fish (salmonella… you don’t need my pinch of salt there).
(*and i sure did need that after the poop-dog-takethatlady and “I educate the French”: i do hate seeing poop on the sidewalks, and my father used to do a kind of very Monty Python walk calling it the “Parisian walk” (he is a Parisian since birth); poop has to be in the curb, were water is supposed to flow, and joins the sanitation of toilets waters- without cutting trees and traveling paper, without plastic, which, by the way, occurs to be one of XXI th century’s main dangers, kills Flipper and such ;p, i mean, is really much dirtier than… c: “organic” ); so I’m okay with that poop in the curb, as a lesser bad thing, tout bien considéré.
But it has to be put in the angle of the curb… that is why your old lady neighbor who appears to love dogs, not rude people, in the end, was right and not the rude one from the start.
After first glance, and not liking so much at first what i say (pro’lly), I see the open mind and your will to learn stronger than something, so, “I educate the French one by one”… I suppose you’ll have the humor and wit to appreciate my share, by second thought (my bet about you). One by one :p 😉
That’s a pity I don’t live in Paris anymore, I feel you so much when you talk about how difficult it is to get corrections, i just felt that same frustration with the people i spoke to abroad, we could have shared french-english corrections! I’ve had the idea to ask to be told for one wrong phrase or word at the end of each day, I hoped it would help people not to feel bad to “correct” my accent or phrasing, but I don’t have anymore opportunities to speak, so it is up to you to try this one if you like
You go girl ! 🙂
https://www.toquedechef.com/fr/blog/ne-lavez-pas-votre-poulet-avant-de-le-cuire–n18
or
https://www.sciencesetavenir.fr/sante/mieux-vaut-eviter-de-laver-son-poulet-pour-rester-en-bonne-sante_18212
that one refers to british authorities if needed éè)
It is really rare to fill a check manually in France since at least the end of XX th century, machines do it, and it takes same time as debit card code does ; i’ve been quite surprised to read about your own surprise when you went back usa to Florida, about the credit/debit machines : that is so common everywhere in France since, dunno, let’s say 1995 or 2000? that, yeah, i’m surprised it was kind of new there in Florida.
Maybe the use of credit card, massive in the us, stopped it whereas debit/credit cards… ///or because the chip was created by a french man, or the small country and close towns versus big space… same for (sigh, beloved) cash/coin public phones, began to disappear before 1990 and died 2003 and so on anyways with cellular phone growth. So usefull in some emergencies, 2022 or not, alas. I think usa still have some of these. Back to main subject, paying///
Data collecting and storing is the growing new pollution, so…
I willingly make an effort, that has been 8 or 10 years currently, to drop card and use cash again now.
I do use the card to take cash.
Plus, that serves my precious privacy about liking peanut butter or guilty unecologically container-travelling chocolate!
As my friendly but unasked explanations (post before the links in french) are probably not to appear or not yet – that’s ok… one is who he is – I would think useful to add for English-speakers – i hope i do not have a misplaced ego with my “woops”… links were in french, i realize.
Just want to help anyone not only Diane and french-speakers, (I love thinking and saw bits of it here, but not so patient as to have a second try) so… shortly :
these two previous links I posted yesterday are SANITARY ADVICE why you don not want to wash your meat (poulet/poultry, especially).
(i did explain how to and why, but was mixed with historical and sociology thinking so might be not the expected content (pro’lly :p Diane) ; … whatever: duck duck go is still your friend).
As my friendly but unasked explanations (post before the links in french) are probably not to appear or not yet – that’s ok… one is who he is – I would think useful to add for English-speakers – i hope i do not have a misplaced ego with my “woops”… links were in french, i realize.
Just want to help anyone not only Diane and french-speakers, (I love thinking and saw bits of it here, but not so patient as to have a second try) so… shortly :
these two previous links I posted yesterday are SANITARY ADVICE why you don not want to wash your meat (poulet/poultry, especially).
(i did explain how to and why, but was mixed with historical and sociology thinking so might be not the expected content (pro’lly :p Diane) ; … whatever: duck duck go is still your friend).
(edited)