laimeduck Posted February 13, 2013 Share Posted February 13, 2013 On our recent skiing trip to France we used Auchan, Carrefour & E. Leclerc supermarkets, because they were the ones where we stopped. I was wondering how they rated against the British Supermarkets? For example, would Auchan be the French Tesco? Or E Leclerc the Sainsburys, or Carrefour the Waitrose? Any thoughts from you seasoned motorhomers or those who live out there? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowie Posted February 13, 2013 Share Posted February 13, 2013 What did You think Jeremy ?? alan b Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JudgeMental Posted February 13, 2013 Share Posted February 13, 2013 Could not care less to be honest as they all seem to sell the same stuff. All I know is compared to Spain French supermarkets very expensive...Lidl do nice bread and croissants in Europe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Solwaybuggier Posted February 13, 2013 Share Posted February 13, 2013 JudgeMental - 2013-02-13 9:56 AM Lille do mice bread and croissants in Europe (Strange - I'm sure the published post referred to Lidl doing nice bread..! I must try mice bread!) But Lidl branches here with instore bakeries do excellent croissants and bread at good prices - even if the quality can be inconsistent between branches. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JudgeMental Posted February 13, 2013 Share Posted February 13, 2013 Solwaybuggier - 2013-02-13 10:04 AM JudgeMental - 2013-02-13 9:56 AM Lille do mice bread and croissants in Europe (Strange - I'm sure the published post referred to Lidl doing nice bread..! I must try mice bread!) But Lidl branches here with instore bakeries do excellent croissants and bread at good prices - even if the quality can be inconsistent between branches. blame the IPad spell check its a bloomin pain + dyslexia of course. So where is "here" ?? we are not mind readers you know! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zydeco Joe Posted February 13, 2013 Share Posted February 13, 2013 UK Supermarket have in the last few years caught up with their French counterparts they even now sell House Meat LOL :-D :-D :-D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Solwaybuggier Posted February 13, 2013 Share Posted February 13, 2013 JudgeMental - 2013-02-13 10:31 AM blame the IPad spell check its a bloomin pain + dyslexia of course. So where is "here" ?? we are not mind readers you know! "Here" is UK - we often use Lidl in Carlisle or Wigton for bread and croissants. The rye bread is virtually identical to what Lidl in Germany sell. And what was strange wasn't the spelling - it was that the "Quote" button produced something different from what was in the published posting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JudgeMental Posted February 13, 2013 Share Posted February 13, 2013 Solwaybuggier - 2013-02-13 11:15 AM JudgeMental - 2013-02-13 10:31 AM blame the IPad spell check its a bloomin pain + dyslexia of course. So where is "here" ?? we are not mind readers you know! "Here" is UK - we often use Lidl in Carlisle or Wigton for bread and croissants. The rye bread is virtually identical to what Lidl in Germany sell. And what was strange wasn't the spelling - it was that the "Quote" button produced something different from what was in the published posting. interesting..so they are opening the instore bakers here then.....that is good news. The only thing that lets them down is no fresh fish, and meat not so good.... you must have pressed quote before I recognised " unique IPad auto spell checker" I hate the thing, but wife insisted on one..it is an expensive toy with sod all connectivity Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kelly58 Posted February 13, 2013 Share Posted February 13, 2013 At least the French Supermarkets sell good cheap Wine / Diesel and allow overnight motorhome parking with some even having a service point . Which UK Supermarkets offer this ? answers on a postcard please !! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BGD Posted February 13, 2013 Share Posted February 13, 2013 Zydeco Joe - 2013-02-13 11:43 AM UK Supermarket have in the last few years caught up with their French counterparts they even now sell House Meat LOL :-D :-D :-D I've never seen house meat for sale in any of them.......... ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tracker Posted February 13, 2013 Share Posted February 13, 2013 Our perception is that the French supermarkets are all similar except that Carrefour and Leclerc often seem to charge less for diesel - much as Asda do in the UK? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barryd999 Posted February 13, 2013 Share Posted February 13, 2013 E Lecerc usually has a better cheese counter! :-D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zydeco Joe Posted February 13, 2013 Share Posted February 13, 2013 Had Lidl's fresh baked croissants for breakfast in our Horse this morning LOL (see mistake above) :-D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laimeduck Posted February 13, 2013 Author Share Posted February 13, 2013 snowie - 2013-02-13 9:21 AM What did You think Jeremy ?? alan b Alan - I don't know, which is why I asked. We use Auchan a lot because we go via Boulogne (St Martin) and their cheese & deli are superb, & their range of wines is staggering + cheap fuel from the ever present Didier! I would probably liken the whole Auchan experience to Tesco? Leclerc in Dijon was marginally smaller and less well stocked, but overall the quality was high, maybe Waitrose? Carrefour in Laon - probably Sainsburys? The best was our little butcher in Le Grand Bornand - Superb service & quality Rosbif. (They even had horse labelled as horse!) (I guess they are much of a muchness and quality will vary, just like here. We only have Waitrose locally, with Tesco & Sainsbury about 8 miles away, & M&S & Asda, Lidl & Aldi 15 miles away. So we mainly use Waitrose and a bulk shop at Costco roughly every month when I pass it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowie Posted February 13, 2013 Share Posted February 13, 2013 laimeduck - 2013-02-13 1:24 PM snowie - 2013-02-13 9:21 AM What did You think Jeremy ?? alan b I would probably liken the whole Auchan experience to Tesco? Leclerc in Dijon was marginally smaller and less well stocked, but overall the quality was high, maybe Waitrose? Carrefour in Laon - probably Sainsburys? (I guess they are much of a muchness and quality will vary, just like here.. Hi Jeremy, I think I would agree with your comparisons, but would also add "Super-U" as a bit of a dark horse. We used to use Auchan when we did a booze run before we had the van, but these days find them a bit Tesco'ish. We use Sainsburys and Asda at home. We find supermarkets are pretty variable, just like here, and tend to judge on the quality of veg section. We also find that huge doesn't necessarily mean good. I hear a lot said about Lidl, but tend to avoid them after a huge, great value pack of chicken turned out to be full of water! Like the current problems with horsemeat.......... cheap food is not always a bargain, but there are some good buys out there, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BGD Posted February 13, 2013 Share Posted February 13, 2013 Whenever in France we tend to use the usual suspects: Lidl and Aldi, for basic stuff. But in addition, we've found Auchan to be good ( the "Jumbo" supermarkets in Portugal are a subsidiary of the Auchan group), and also the Super U/HyperU chain are excellent too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tracker Posted February 13, 2013 Share Posted February 13, 2013 Most of the French supermarkets tend to stock mainly French wines which is not much help if you prefer German or Australian wines - which Dot does! Me? I don't drink the stuff wherever it comes from! Aldi and Lidl have a broader but narrower selection, so I am told and the Spanish supermarkets seem to have the widest range - and as with almost everything else better prices - so we tend to stock up anywhere other than France!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gwendolyn Posted February 13, 2013 Share Posted February 13, 2013 laimeduck - 2013-02-13 9:14 AM On our recent skiing trip to France we used Auchan, Carrefour & E. Leclerc supermarkets, because they were the ones where we stopped. I was wondering how they rated against the British Supermarkets? For example, would Auchan be the French Tesco? Or E Leclerc the Sainsburys, or Carrefour the Waitrose? It’s something that I have occasionally pondered about. You might find these two articles of interest. It would seem that there is no consensus as to comparisons between French / British supermarkets. http://www.france-forum-frenchentree.com/viewtopic.php?t=58123 http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2011/jun/01/which-is-best-french-supermarket Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Jones Posted February 13, 2013 Share Posted February 13, 2013 On last year's trip, we got a bit fed up with Leclerc fro two main reasons - both outside the actual store! They seemed to be getting a bit keen on height barriers, and at least one of their unmanned fuel stations wouldn't take any of our UK cards - the rest of France sorted this out 3 or 4 years ago! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 1footinthegrave Posted February 13, 2013 Share Posted February 13, 2013 We must go to the wrong ones, I've often said the average French man/woman would think they had died and gone to heaven if they visited some of our better supermarkets, both for price, and selection. And we really do find their Baguettes and bread for the most part crap, :-S I love my cakes as well, why are they a kings ransom over there ? 8-) Also very odd that after speaking to an assistant in Canterbury where my wife wanted to buy some French perfume it was much cheaper than in France, and the assistant said many of their customers were French Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
malc d Posted February 13, 2013 Share Posted February 13, 2013 Tracker - 2013-02-13 4:46 PM .............Aldi and Lidl have a broader but narrower selection, ......................! ...but I think that's only in their bigger smaller stores. :-| Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tracker Posted February 13, 2013 Share Posted February 13, 2013 malc d - 2013-02-13 7:44 PM Tracker - 2013-02-13 4:46 PM ............Aldi and Lidl have a broader but narrower selection, ......................! ...but I think that's only in their bigger smaller stores. :-| Well spotted Malc - that bit of bait took a while to catch!! All their stores are smaller except for the bigger ones which are not smaller - but I can't think why that is! Ah yes - I remember - size does not matter - it's what they stock that counts!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Klyne Posted February 13, 2013 Share Posted February 13, 2013 Interesting question. I did read somewhere that E Le Clerc and Intermarche were mainly franchises so not necessarily owned by the headline company. So I suppose its possible the get a different impression depending on what store you visit but then again that could apply to them all. To me the top supermarket in France is Carrefour, especially the really big ones. I think I would put Carrefour more in the Sainsbury category rather than Waitrose because the latter does not have really massive stores. I don't visit Auchen very much these days but the last big one I was in it seemed to me that is was going down market s bit. The truth is that in the main we tend to use Carrefour Markets and Intermarche because they tend to be the supermarkets is the smaller towns. David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul M Who Posted February 13, 2013 Share Posted February 13, 2013 JudgeMental - 2013-02-13 6:56 PM ...Lidl do nice bread and croissants in Europe Don't remind me Judge, I can smell them from here in Sydney anytime someone mentions it.Just another 35 days till we're there.Breakfast at LIDL's anyone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Kirby Posted February 13, 2013 Share Posted February 13, 2013 BGD - 2013-02-13 12:14 PM...........I've never seen house meat for sale in any of them.......... ;-) No Bruce, but I've seen a fair bit of "house meat" waddling around in them! :-D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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