On line suppliers other than white goods

[Berlioz]

Great new section!

I need to find on-lne suppliers for:

School supplies 6eme (probably won't arrive until mid August... Ahhhhh)

Do the supermarkets deliver ?  (Will Tesco go bust when I leave? )

Fridges etc, have seen the post below-thanks!

Gluten free/sans gluten food ( I have some links but new ones welcome)

Anything else I havn't  worried about yet.

I will obviously have to  go shopping eventually (hopefully after an intensive french course) just having a panic about finding the 101 things needed to move in when I won't be able to go shopping!

D

[Rosebud]

[quote user="DonnaD"]

Do the supermarkets deliver ?  (Will Tesco go bust when I leave? )[/quote]

If you're living close to a large town they might.  I've used www.houra.fr before for online groceries, but stopped because they don't take back the boxes.  I ended up with boxes stacked floor to ceiling.  Not very environmentally friendly.

Where are you moving to?

 

[TheVicar]

School supplies, can't help. We get most of ours fom the local Leclerc.

Supermarket deliveries? You are hoping! We have recently been speaking

to the lady who owns the local bar, who wants to visit England. The

thought of a milkman fascinates her. When we spoke of ice-cream vans

and similar, her eyes were popping.

Gluten free, no personal experience. Have you visited www.afdiag.org?

[londoneye]

shopping is about the easiest thing here!    Doesn't matter how limited your french is, at end of day a shop wants to sell you something so generally i have found them to be very helpful.   anyway if you are talking supermarket you dont have to do more than exchange 'bonjour' 'merci' and the like at checkout!    I have got very brave the last two weeks (we have been here for 3 months now) and I have mustered up courage to approach the meat counter, even when there is a large queue behind me listening (!) as opposed to only buying meat pre-packed, which i confess i did at start to avoid the issue of having to speak french in front of all those interested by-standers in the queue.   Isnt it amazing how you hang around waiting to slip up and whisper something in your inadequate french, only to look around and find 35 people behind you, agog to listen to your every shamefully stuttererd word!!  Doesnt matter where you are, it will happen, so you might as well bite the bullet and get in there straight away!    I did from day 1, and responses to my somewhat painful use of language have been astonishingly generous - one person even complimented me on my french!!!    And i wasnt buying something large enough to warrant such extreme grovelling either, in case you are thinking that!

On line shopping is definitely not what it is in the UK, although you can get large goods delivered from castorama - you pay a hefty delivery charge, but  i have used them a few times and they were pretty good.   Beware though of lulling yourself into a false sense of security.    When you have congratulated yourself on ordering, received confirmation and sit back happily having not had to speak a single word of french - what happens?    Yes,the day of the delivery you get a call from a 'lost' delivery man, who speaks with a dialect that even French people wouldnt understand, is (seemingly) quite a way away from you, and firmly believes that the appropriate method of finding you is to telephone you every 5 ,minutes, updating you on his whereabouts and demanding further directions (presumably because my last set were so appalling or incomprehensible that the poor man was even more lost!).  Trust me, it made the prospect of going into the shopping, pointing at the damned thing and shoving it in the car look very attractive!!

[Berlioz]

For some reason my previous reply isn't here, so I'll thank you all again!

I actually don't mind shopping in France when I have time and my other half around for complicated stuff, I'm happy enough in the supermarket (although I cannot carry heavy bags due to back/shoulder injury and I also find it very tiring ) and in other shops I can point, smile and say combien!   My problem is that we are arriving much later in the summer hols than expected and my other half will only be arround for 3-4 days before having to return to London for 7 days work.  I am also going to start intensive French lessons on 4th Sept every morning so won't have a lot of time to shop.

So I am trying to find ways of making life a bit easier!

Talk about hit the ground running.......

[opas]

Donna, look in the Education section, I think someone is trying to contact you.

[Chrisb]

Hi there,

As far as school supplies are concerned, if you are coming in August, you will still have time to get the stuff on your list - the supermarkets are the cheapest, but, if it's your first time, and you haven't got someone who can come along and help you (it can be quite confusing at first!!), you can always put your list in to the nearest Maison de la Presse or other newsagents, and they will do it for you. It will cost more this way, but will save you lots of hassle!!

Regards

Chris

[Cassis]

Londoneye mentioned the subject of delivery charges.  These can be astronomical - no-one seems to deliver free, not even things like kitchen units, fridges, sofas etc.  Unless you've got a big people carrier or similar, think seriously about getting a decent sized trailer - it'll come in handy for lots of other jobs as well and will help keep the inside of your car cleaner.  Some stores - like But - do van hire by the half hour.

[PossumGirl]

We were able to negotiate not only free delivery, but also a hefty discount and a free Nespresso machine when we bought all our white goods at Conforama.  It was a BIG order for them and they were falling over backwards to keep us happy so we wouldn't go anywhere else.

I wouldn't have ever tried to negotiate similarly at a big chain store in the States, they just don't have the ability to do that at most of them.

PG