comments about France from a young Australian.

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Priceless advice for those planning on going shopping in France!!

1) The word ça is incredibly useful. If you don't know a word for something, you just desperately point at it and say "Je voudrais ça!" (I would like that).

2) French supermarkets have a strange system of organisation. I was delighted to come across the aisle of tinned fruit, only to come across another aisle of tinned fruit later on! Tricky!

3) One cannot buy blank DVDs in spindles and they are very expensive in a five-pack. 17 for 5 -Rs! I was not impressed.

4) If you see a service called 'La Poste', it is actually a postal banking service. I still have no idea where the French send letters from.

5) French shop assistants frequently forget items and the bags have holes. Not that you are given bags, you have to buy them and pack your goods yourself!

Francis if you (or anyone else can) assist with the POST and CD problems I'd appreciate your assistance.

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If you wish to post a letter, simply stop a stranger on the street and inquire:

Ou est la plume de ma tante?

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1- I agree.

2- Quick statement, probably checking only one French supermaket and not noticing that industrial products are not in the same aisle than organic products.

3- Probably not the right place to buy CDs. I can have a 50 CD' spindle for 17,00 .

4 - Recently, French Postal Service, La Poste, got a licence to act as a bank, with the same services. So, today, you can have a bank and the postal service in the same building but different offices and clercks.

5 - As usual, shop assistants are people with little training. That, in addition, they forget things, is obvious and not particular to France.
As far as I know, only one supermakets' chain sells the bags to pack (they say they are protecting the environment). Otherwise is common practice to pack yourself in Europe.

I hope I replied to your expectations ( Twisted Evil

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Post and Post Bank were the same here in Germany from .... 1909 onwards.
Since 1989 both are private, independent instituions .... but still in the same buildings.
(And if you go ton of franchise "Post shops", both is done by the same person .... as in 1909.)

Although Francis answered with infos about CD's - it's the very same with DVD's (slightly more expensive with some brands than in Germany, cheaper with no-names).

In Germany you have to buy bags. I do it in France, too (cotton) but only because I don't like the cheap plastic bags you get for free (and in some hypermarchés automatically).

re tinned fruit: either what Francis or: special offers. Those, depending on the supermarket chain, are either displased at the entrance, or at the end/beginning of a row .... or somewhere where don't expect such.

Generally (as Francis knows) I prefer French supermarkets to others in any country. Espeically, because nowhere else you can find such a variety of marmelades and jams.

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I may from time to time post comments from her. You may find it interesting to see France through her eyes as she assimilates the culture. she is 16 and participating in a year long student exchange.

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After my shopping escapade, thus began.... my cooking adventure. I tackle a good old Australian pavlova in the heart of northern France. This my friends, was not a mean feat. This post is for you Mummy!

The french have a very different concept of cooking desserts. When it comes to cake and the like, my host mother and sister usually put the ingredients in the blender, pop it in the oven and presto. I had to stress to them that pavlova is a little different. After buying all my ingredients this morning, I was off!

The first attempt ended in disaster. The recipe said to put the whole lot in a bowl and mix well. I skeptically decided to follow their suggestions and put it all in the blender. In went the egg whites... and some small amounts of egg yellow too. I then hunted around for measuring impliments... it appears the French has neither standard cups or spoons! Thus, my mixture required some guesswork.

In went everything, on went the blender, and we ended up with something resembling a clear and runny pancake mix! Not the desired effect! I was back on the internet to research. We turfed the mixture and I decided to try again using a handheld mixture and start by beating the egg whites FIRST.

We ended up with a pretty satisfactory mixture and a beautifully baked pav, that was until, the oven wouldn't turn off. By the time it had cooled down, my pavlova had adopted a golden brown colour and had crumbled considerably.

When Houria came home later, it was time to top with cream. Now, we all know that the cream we buy in tubs is nice and sweet, right? Wrong! I had definitely got the right stuff, but it appears French cream is not the slightest bit sweet. I mixed in what seemed like half a box of caster sugar and a considerable amount of vanilla essence, though it did not to alter the taste at all. What horrible stuff! My host family assured me that it was fine.

Topped with fruit, it looks... well... better luck next time I think. I'm not game enough to try any though my hosts seem willing.

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Francis wrote-

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5 - As usual, shop assistants are people with little training.

What a good idea. How lucky can you get?

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Enjoying this thread, though I've not been to France (wish).

At least one of my markets has two repetitive aisles, with the organo-yuppie stuff set aside from cheapo-ordinary. Annoying from my own point of view. I think that is a misery of changing mores...

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I have noticed some funny quirks in the French culture. For example, they eat chocolate EVERYTHING, especially at breakfast time. However, unlike Australia, they make no attempt to conceal how unhealthy the chocolate cereal is!!!! Instead of all the "contains essential vitamins" nonsense, it says "contains 100 percent chocolate" and there is even one called "Choky Chok"!

I have also noticed that beggars leave you alone if you don't speak their language. One tried to harass me in a mixture of French and Italian and after my assertive "non compris", he waved to me and told me to have a nice day!

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Do you mean that you can't tell a beggar because he/she doesn't speak English with a funny accent.

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hmmmm...

interesting observations!

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Hmm. Interesting. I've never seen sweet cream (besides that funny stuff pre-factored).
[Crème] Chantilly indeed is sweet .... after you made it. And a French invention.

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Don't make any judgements on the cream just yet.

1. Her family in oz may usually purchase a pre sweetened variety. Similar to what comes out of a pressurised can.

2. She may, in fact, have purchased sour cream despite believing she got the right stuff.

Remember this is a kid with only very very basic french language skills. An intelligent (very intelligent?) and motivated girl but still only a young women who judges the universe by her experiences in a tiny rural town in Australia. It's a joy to watch.

In Oz cream to me, is extracted from the cows milk, pasturised, mostly(?) has a thickener added and put in a plastic bottle which we purchase from the supermarket.

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You could get such here as well, I suppose. Laughing

Certainly I can imagine the cultural shock a 16 year old gets when being for the first time not only in Europe (?) but especially in France. :wink:

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I had a cultural whappo at 47, having wished for one earlier, life intervening - though my culturall whappo was not in France. I like reading her reactions.

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That would have to have been sour cream, I think, as the sugar would have made it sweet instantly otherwise.

Isn't life interesting? I cannot imagine thinking that cream comes sweetened naturally!

How invisible our own particular culture is until we experience others.

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What's this? Australians teaching the French how to cook?

Shocked

:wink:

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McTag wrote:

What's this? Australians teaching the French how to cook?

:wink:

Sure......

Why not?

But not in the case of Pavlovas, methinks.

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I don't know whether you Aussies eat parsnips, but that certainly raised some eyebrows with the French arm of my family when we included those in amongst the roast vegetables.

Other things to look out for..........

T-Shirts/Sweatshirts in French Hypermarkets (even rucksacks).
Many of them have "English" writing on them (matbe they think this makes the garment "cool"?) .
The slogan or statement usually makes no sense at all, and often makes some sort of weird reference to quality.
....e.g......"Best quality wearing for sustaining beauty" was one I purchased for use back in England whilst walking the dog.

She should also listen out for the music they play in the Hypermarkets. Much of it is in English, but as they don't really understand the language properly, much of it is obscure modern stuff that contains some really bad swearing. It's hilarious to hear someone singing, describing how they're going to take a girl to bed and do all sorts of explicit stuff with her, whilst one is selecting one's groceries.

A brand of lemonade called "Pshitt" always makes me smile.

Also, tell her to avoid the tinned Cassoulet, otherwise she'll be farting non stop for a week.

....and, if she ever fancies some beetroot, she should never ask for a "beet", as it has a completely different meaning over there. It may be spelt differently, but is pronounced Beet, as I found to my cost.
It refers to the male appendage, apparently.

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Lord Ellpus wrote:

"Best quality wearing for sustaining beauty" was one I purchased for use back in England whilst walking the dog.

And...did it work? Was your beauty sustained? Enhanced? Any difference at all?

I can imagine how foreign all things in France would be to a young girl from a small country town. It was surprising enough for me - a no longer young girl from a big city (over 20 years ago!).
Love the supermarkets!

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This is from January sometime. barely a week or so after she arrived.
This kid has 4 years of high school french. She is an A grade student.
What the schools teach here as French is almost totally useless in France itself.

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It was a rather long and tedious day. I understood virtually nothing of what was being said and managed to copy a few notes of Emelie, but that was it. I tried to concentrate, copied notes, tried to decipher French handwriting, started learning Hamlet's «To Be Or Not To Be?» in French (in case I haven't explained, «» is the french equivalent of "") and spent a lot of time staring out the window in a state of sheer boredom.

Now I will go and get started on this homework which seems to have presented itself. I have been giving Sarah English lessons in exchange for French ones, she finds my French hysterically funny to the point where she bursts out laughing if I enter the room! Hehehe! Au revoir!!

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comments about France from a young Australian.

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