C’est la rentrée! It’s back-to-school time in France! The first day back for students at all public schools nationwide is Monday, September 4, 2023, and along with that comes school supplies shopping. Let’s take a look at what school supplies French kids need before they head back to class.
P.S. If you’re looking for souvenirs from France, French school supplies are the perfect choice!
French school supplies
1. Pencil case 2. Bic fountain pen 3. Pencils 4. PaperMate eraser pens 5. Stabilo pastel highlighters 6. Clairefontaine grid notebook 7. Exacompta elastic folders
I loved back-to-school shopping when I was a kid. Between the new clothes and shoes and all the pens and notebooks, I was in my glory. I liked school and thought it was super exciting to get everything I needed for class.
As an adult, I have a bit of an obsession with notebooks and cool pens, so it’s no wonder I’m writing about back-to-school supplies. I went out to buy a few things despite the fact that we don’t have kids because, well, it’s fun and you can never have too many notebooks and pens.
In France, every student gets a list of what his or her school requires for the upcoming year, similar to what I remember receiving from my teacher as a kid growing up in suburban New Jersey.
What stands out to me about this French list is how long and detailed it is, even the basic list. In many cases, you’ll see exact sizes and colors noted for all of the French school supplies on the list.
The translation of school supplies in French is les fournitures scolaires and you’ll see that at the top of the school supplies in French list below.
Looking for a French school supplies store? You can buy school supplies in France both in person or online at grocery stores, office supply stores like Bureau Vallée or Office Depot, or independent stationery stores. There’s also Cultura which has music/DVDs, books, arts and crafts, and more.
BIC is a popular brand and about 50% of BIC products sold in France are made at one of the seven BIC factories in France.
Here’s a look at the basic French school supplies that all middle-school kids need for 2023:
On top of the basic list, individual schools have their own lists that build upon the basics pictured above. As kids get older, the lists get more complicated. Think specific fountain pens, dictionaries, and paperclips. The lists can get long and can even become something that families dread and joke about.
It can be stressful for parents to have to shop for specific brands of highlighters or glue sticks or find notebooks with the exact dimensions required, so much so that there are websites that do the school shopping for you and ship everything to your home.
How’s that for a French school supplies store? You send the site your specific school’s list and they take care of it for you. No stress!
School supplies also get expensive. The good thing is that for families who earn under a certain amount of money, there’s government financial assistance that goes toward back-to-school shopping to ensure that every student can have what’s necessary to start the school year off on the right foot.
The allocation de rentrée scolaire can range up to 500 € per child depending on the age of the children in the household. This year, 30,884 € is the max income a family with two children can earn to qualify for the subsidy. In 2020, the allotment was 100 € more than usual due to the current global situation.
Here are the French school supplies that I bought and will use in my office (that also make great souvenirs from France):
Pencil case: This roomy BIC pencil case is made in France and features a little red, white, and blue to show off your patriotic side. It zips closed.
Fountain pen: I always got a chuckle out of French kids using their fountain pens. I don’t think I had ever used one even as an adult. They seem fancy in my head and more complicated than they need to be.
French kids do have ballpoint pens, as noted on the basic supplies list above, but from early middle school on, many French teachers require schoolwork to be done with fountain pens like the BIC one here. They require replaceable ink cartridges that you can buy separately.
Eraser pens: These PaperMate magic eraser pens are a French school supply staple. They caught my eye the first day of class when I was teaching because we don’t really have them in the USA, or if we do they aren’t mainstream for kids everywhere.
Contrary to what I thought, they aren’t pens that you use to write with that just have erasable ink. They are only used to make corrections when you use your fountain pen.
Since there’s no eraser on a fountain pen, these special pens come in handy when you make a mistake in ink and need to erase. You use the white end to remove the error and then write over it with the ink on the blue end.
Your regular fountain pen ink won’t write over the part that you erased with the white end, so you need this special blue ink end to make the correction.
Pencils: These pencils came in a pack of four and were pre-sharpened. This is what they look like right out of the package.
Pastel highlighters: I like the soft pastels instead of the bright fluorescent colors. Even if you’re no longer a student highlighting lines in textbooks, they are great for highlighting appointment times in your planner or making a more colorful to-do list.
Grid notebook: Clairefontaine and Rhodia (acquired by Clairefontaine in 1997) are two popular brands of notebooks kids use. The pages have grid paper — tiny squares — instead of lines.
Folders: These colorful folders are super common even with adults. Any time you have a meeting at the bank or anywhere, you’ll bring all your documents in a folder like this with an elastic strap to keep everything inside.
France vs. USA school supplies
Here are a couple of things I’ve noticed about back-to-school supplies in France that are different than how kids do things in the USA. Although I don’t have kids, I got a first-hand look at schools in France when I taught in French primary schools:
-When I was in grade school, we wrote with pencils. In France, fountain pens are much more common, even for math, especially at the middle school level and above. I find that kids write with ink way more often in France than in the USA.
-The eraser pens pictured earlier in the post are a must so that you can correct errors you’ve made in ink. Every student has several in their pencil case. I’ve never seen them in the USA.
–Notebooks have grid lines that form squares in France — and they aren’t just for math. Lined notebooks/paper that students commonly use in the USA are less common in France and are a French school supplies list must.
Photo credit: www.AnnieAndre.com
–Students write in cursive by default and it’s quite elaborate with lots of loops. It’s taught in primary school and you won’t find students submitting assignments with printed/block letters. They write in loopy cursive in French schools, as shown above.
School supplies in France=French souvenirs
When it comes to souvenirs from France, you have so many choices. If you’re into stationery and notebooks like I am, French school supplies make perfect French souvenirs. Small, easy to pack, and useful for adults and kids, colorful folders, pens, and pencil cases are fun ways to remember your trip to France.
What souvenirs from France are your favorite? Would you consider school supplies from France as a gift?
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Hope you enjoyed this look at French school supplies!
Disclosure: I paid for the French school supplies seen here with my own funds. This post does contain affiliate links.
PIN MY SCHOOL SUPPLIES FRENCH STYLE POST:
LOVE school supplies!!! I was in elementary school in the 70’s & enjoyed exactly what you mention about the new outfits, shoes (if we grew too much the year before), but mostly the new supplies! A ream of new paper to write on! Love the smell, reminds me of libraries, too, which I love!
This was fun, thanks. I did just go to a Staples, which had supplies on sale & got some notebooks, as they were less expensive than usual & refills for my Parker Bros. pen.
Enjoy your autumn!
Q
Oh man, I miss staples!!! I loved going as a teen to get all the fun things for school. That was my place!
How is your hip by the way? Hope you’re all better!
Diane
I read this one with interest because I’m a stationery nut, as was my father, my brother and now my daughter. Because I went to a French school I know exactly what you were saying. We had a list and my mom and I went to the store and they knew exactly what we needed for whatever grade!
Every time I’m in France I raid the stationery stores too, love that! I have yet not found a great one because I haven’t looked hard, but I’ve gone to BHV in Paris which I’m sure is not good pricing! I’ll have to hit Office Depot in France!!
I had those grid notebooks which are supposed to help with your écriture. The French are big on that.
Nice read!
Did you go to a French school in France or abroad? How was the experience?
Yes went to French schools from age of 4-15 abroad. I transferred to an American school for the last 2 years. I was academically so strong that I breezed through HS. I never thought French would ever come in handy in my life, until now. That’s why I learned Spanish living in California. Who knew?!
If we’re talking stationary supplies: the folders with elastic corners. I don’t even know if they’re common in North America now because I bought about 1,328 of them (approximately) in the later 1980s and I’ve just never used them all. They were, frankly, a revelation.
Anything Clairefontaine was always popular and appreciated. And DIM stockings and Le chat soaps.
If we’re talking current souvenirs that I gleefully end up hauling back to Canada: Monoprix reusable shopping bags – both the larger and smaller ones since they pack easily. My work colleagues LOVE those. And, believe it or not, Petit Marseillais products like liquid soaps, body washes and body balms. Small price, big scents (that aren’t cloying or stay around too long). Also: Amora mustards, Heinz 3 poivres sauce and Lipton Russian Earl Grey.
I’m weird. But well stocked 🙂
Excellent list! I love the Monoprix bags. Very handy for all kinds of shopping.
I discovered French school supplies when I went to the Université de Franche-Comté. Just love the folders with elastics, which don’t seem to exist in Canada, and I always stock up when in France. Could spend a whole day in a stationery store! Gilbert Joseph on the boulevard St. Michel is a favourite stop-off when I’m staying in the Quarter Latin. Thanks for the fun article.
That’s a great store! I discovered it the first time I went to Paris. It is a stationery lover’s paradise!
Totally agree with the use of pens – I was so surprised to see people using them in university math classes, and had to adapt myself for exams. The lined paper also always gave me anxiety, and I couldn’t use it haha. I had to go to HEMA for notebook paper without all those lines!
Yeah, it would feel so weird to me to do any type of math in pen. Even if I knew I had the eraser pen nearby!
I found this really interesting so the school yeear starts on 1st September and ends when?
Here school runs from January to December split into 4 terms
While I don’t know if this is exactly the same France as it is in the US/Canada, the school year was set from September to June because living on a farm was much more common back when compulsory education started up. Families needed their kids on the farm to do the harvest, and schools realized there was no point teaching when no kids were there to be taught.
That makes a lot of sense, thank you!
Bonjour Diane,
Crazy school supplies…memories of the 70s’. Each teacher with their fad. Grid or lines, a margin, then blank paper with .. suspense.. two, four or no holes, so multiple folders. You name it.
And the pre-stamped letter “scam”. Pupils handed in ten stamped letters bearing their own address every year, so that teachers could send notes to them. Only l’Éducation nationale knows what happened to those piles of letters.
La rentrée back then was around September 6.
I really enjoyed reading this post. I remember so well being a child at the end of our summer holiday in France and on the way home we would stop at the Intermache. The parents got wine and we got school supplies! There was so much choice and we found it so exciting! Thanks for sharing.
Abi
http://www.thelittlefrenchcottage.com
I LOVED school supplies!!! Is was a fun read BUT $26 for a fountain pen plus cartridges!?!?! Guess French kids are more responsible with their supplies cos wow I’d be a stressed parent threatening my child they better NOT lose that pen lol
School has changed! We had a list as kids from 1980 and up but not like now. I can’t get over all the supplies even here in the state’s these days.
I’m French and I teach middle school. I’m seeing less and less kids using fountain pens, maybe 5 every school year. They use regular pens these days.
That’s sad