Not AGAIN!!!!!

[Evianers]

Yes, it's happened yet again! Went back for the first time in two weeks to the same Lidl shop for essentials. Checked the bill most carefully, and yes, there was a mistake AGAIN - in their favour of course. Avocado pears, two in a packet marked 99c, charged at the till as €2.79. The sales assistant became quite abusive when we were proved right, but her jaw dropped down to her knees when we told her the last time we were in the shop we were overcharged €13.67. Always, always, check the bill.

[idun]

Yes, always check the bill and the sell by dates. AND those multi buys, sometimes they are cheaper as single units.

What a hassle, what the simple act of shopping can be.[Www]

[Quillan]

[quote user="idun"]Yes, always check the bill and the sell by dates. AND those multi buys, sometimes they are cheaper as single units.

What a hassle, what the simple act of shopping can be.[Www]
[/quote]

You forgot to mention price per kilo. 10kg bag of Carrefour dog biscuits 87 cents per kilo, 20kg bag 1.08 Euros per kilo.

[YCCMB]

In a spooky coincidence, I was buying avocados in Lidl the other day, and they had two different sorts: the two-pack at the price you quoted of €2-odd, and individual ones at 99c each. I know this specifically, because I baulked at paying so much for two in a barquette but the 99c ones seemed in line with the price everywhere else.

I think you were lucky if they eventually did charge you 99c, because it was more likely a mislabelling on the fruit and veg section than an attempt to rip you off at the till.

[Alan Zoff]

It's not just German supermarkets.

I bought some "fresh" coffee from the village shop. It tasted foul and when we looked more closely at the packet it was 2 years beyond its use-by date. Back over to the shop and found that several packs were well out of date. Monsieur l'epicier acted aghast at this news and swapped the stale pack for one of the few still in date. It was another brand costing 6 cents more and he wanted the 6c before handing it over!

[Judith]

You can never be too careful when checking prices ... 1l orange juice, versus 1.5 litre - they wanted  1.50€ more for the extra .5l ... I bought 1 litre ..

[idun]

[quote user="Alan Zoff"]It's not just German supermarkets.

I bought some "fresh" coffee from the village shop. It tasted foul and when we looked more closely at the packet it was 2 years beyond its use-by date. Back over to the shop and found that several packs were well out of date. Monsieur l'epicier acted aghast at this news and swapped the stale pack for one of the few still in date. It was another brand costing 6 cents more and he wanted the 6c before handing it over![/quote]

A friend of mine lives in a very expensive village, tres BCBG. She had bought tartes aux noix when I went to see her and we sat in her garden with fresh coffee(yes that was fine). I bit into the tarte and it was foul, and I looked at it and it was covered in dust! She was mortified, what with having bought it from a very posh patisserie in the village. she took them back and the owner didn't bat an eyelid, didn't say sorry and just gave her her money back.

Sell by dates:- not sure about them sometimes though. I took some white pepper to France and have brought it back. The supermarket it was from hasn't existed for donkeys years. Tastes all right, and as there is no sell by date........ is it still OK??????

[Judith]

Sell by dates:- not sure about them sometimes though. I took some white

pepper to France and have brought it back. The supermarket it was from

hasn't existed for donkeys years. Tastes all right, and as there is no

sell by date........ is it still OK??????

If it still makes you sneeze it looks like it  hasn't lost any of it's potency!

If it tastes all right and you have lived to tell the tale - why worry?  Just use it. I would.

[Gardian]

[quote user="idun"]tres BCBG. [/quote]

What the hell is BCBG?

[Rabbie]

[quote user="Gardian"]

[quote user="idun"]tres BCBG. [/quote]

What the hell is BCBG?

[/quote] I have seen many posts on this forum stressing the importance of speaking french to fully enjoy the France experience. Perhaps Idun now she is living in England could start posting in English rather than Franglais[6]

[idun]

[:D]Come on now, for those of you who live in France, a lot of the terms I use are tres au courant. And a lot of you have been in France what I consider a while now.

Remember I live in a franglais household and I don't feel like I should hold back on a board about France! I have english friends in France and we all speak franglais, and when push comes to shove, I love franglais.

BCBG   ................... bon chic bon genre, although there is a ruder version.[Www]

[Clarkkent]

[quote user="idun"]

BCBG   ................... bon chic bon genre, although there is a ruder version.[Www]
[/quote]

If you want an appropriate English equivalent .... perhaps .... Sloan Ranger

[YCCMB]

[quote user="Rabbie"][quote user="Gardian"]

[quote user="idun"]tres BCBG. [/quote]

What the hell is BCBG?

[/quote] I have seen many posts on this forum stressing the importance of speaking french to fully enjoy the France experience. Perhaps Idun now she is living in England could start posting in English rather than Franglais[6]

[/quote]

I'm with Idun. Goodness knows, her use of franglais is no less intrusive than people constantly asking for an "artisan" or about their "fosse" (and sometimes, their "fosse sceptic" sic.) or whatever term makes them sound more attuned to French life. There's a sort of "Pretentious? Moi?" element. Whereas I seriously would have imagined that most people who have more than a passing acquaintance with the French language had met BCBG before.

[Rabbie]

[quote user="You can call me Betty"][quote user="Rabbie"][quote user="Gardian"]

[quote user="idun"]tres BCBG. [/quote]

What the hell is BCBG?

[/quote] I have seen many posts on this forum stressing the importance of speaking french to fully enjoy the France experience. Perhaps Idun now she is living in England could start posting in English rather than Franglais[6]

[/quote]

I'm with Idun. Goodness knows, her use of franglais is no less intrusive than people constantly asking for an "artisan" or about their "fosse" (and sometimes, their "fosse sceptic" sic.) or whatever term makes them sound more attuned to French life. There's a sort of "Pretentious? Moi?" element. Whereas I seriously would have imagined that most people who have more than a passing acquaintance with the French language had met BCBG before.[/quote]While I agree with you  about the pretentiousness of some of these expressions I must defend "Artisan" which I found in my Concise Oxford English Dictionary defined as "Mechanic, skilled(esp. manual) worker". This seems to me to be pretty close to how the french used the word so I would not call it franglais. I agree with you about "fosse sceptic". What on earth is wrong with calling it a "septic tank" when you are using english.

I must own up to never having come across BCBG before and it would seem that others who are french resident have also never heard it.  I agree that Idun's use of franglais is no more intrusive than other peoples but because the sheer volume of her posts it is the one that most readily comes to mind, I just think that someone who is often appearing to view France through less than rose-tinted glasses perhaps is more attached to France that she sometimes cares to admit to herself.

Anyway I know that she will not pay any attention to my remarks and I look forward to her posts in future. At least they are never dull.

[nomoss]

The practice reminds me a bit of Dell boy[:)]

Although some use a French term (or an approximation) because they don't know the English equivalent.

It's quite difficult to work out how many French words one hears are spelt, as they don't pronounce most of the consonants, nor even many of the vowels, which makes it difficult to look in a dictionary, nezpah? [:-))]

 

 

[mint]

[quote user="nomoss"]

It's quite difficult to work out how many French words one hears are spelt, as they don't pronounce most of the consonants, nor even many of the vowels, which makes it difficult to look in a dictionary, nezpah? [:-))]

 

 

[/quote]

Nomoss, I don't often disagree with you but I absolutely do disagree with the above.

It's totally untrue that "they don't pronounce most of the consonants" and also untrue that "many of the vowels" are also not pronounced [geek]

Admittedly they may not pronounce them in the same way as we would in English [:P] but I can assure you that both consonants and vowels are given their due emphasis[:D]

[idun]

Yes, hands up to using nez pah instead of n'est-ce pas, which I do know how to write, although that looks far more long winded than when spoken.[:D]

I shall always be attached to France, how could I avoid it. All our income comes from France and we are well involved in french paperasse on an all too regular basis. Our son lives there and I have some wonderful friends there and as I spent most of my adult life there, I know an awful lot of people and 'stuff' about France.

Maybe I was lucky when I got there. Just french tv and radio, the world service was so poor with our radio that we had to hold our ears to it to try and pick up news about the Falklands War......... believe me the french news was not the same and there was applause when the exocets worked in anger........ from our point of view, an awful moment. Finding anything out was hard work, because believe it or not, a lot of french people are rather vague about a lot of things in France. So you listen to everything and take in as much as you can and store it for future use. And even french friends ask me things, because I often know. So yes, I am more than attached to France, which I see as it is, and always have, like I see the UK as it is too. It is a strange notion to me to even consider that the grass is greener, although I know people who do, but it's still just grass[Www].

And my use of franglais, well, look the words up, expand your knowledge, you are only a click away these days , it couldn't be easier, or ask french people, have a conversation. About the first things I learned to say were 'je ne comprends pas', and 'c'est quoi'. Because even if you don't understand the whole answer, then eventually you pick some of it up and in the end, all of it, there again, I wasn't a click away from things......... and maybe if I had been I wouldn't know as much as I do now........ as I have often wondered if that would have been the case.

[nomoss]

S17. "nezpah" was an example supporting my statement.[;-)]

 

 

[Rabbie]

[quote user="sweet 17"][quote user="nomoss"]

It's quite difficult to work out how many French words one hears are spelt, as they don't pronounce most of the consonants, nor even many of the vowels, which makes it difficult to look in a dictionary, nezpah? [:-))]

 

 

[/quote]

Nomoss, I don't often disagree with you but I absolutely do disagree with the above.

It's totally untrue that "they don't pronounce most of the consonants" and also untrue that "many of the vowels" are also not pronounced [geek]

Admittedly they may not pronounce them in the same way as we would in English [:P] but I can assure you that both consonants and vowels are given their due emphasis[:D]

[/quote]I find that the pronunciation does vary quite a lot depending on where you are.

[Judith]

I must own up to never having come across BCBG before

Moi, non plus.  So I am glad to have the translation.  As for "franglais" which I take to mean using french phrases in english sentences, and vice versa, nothing wrong in that.  I nearly wrote traduction above, simpy because it was the first word to come to mind.  Sometimes my mind finds the french word before it finds the english, and as long as it doesn't hinder communication I can see no problem in that on a forum about France.

[Alan Zoff]

Sorry, but it just seems a bit childish to me

[Rabbie]

[quote user="Judith"]I must own up to never having come across BCBG before

Moi, non plus.  So I am glad to have the translation.  As for "franglais" which I take to mean using french phrases in english sentences, and vice versa, nothing wrong in that.  I nearly wrote traduction above, simpy because it was the first word to come to mind.  Sometimes my mind finds the french word before it finds the english, and as long as it doesn't hinder communication I can see no problem in that on a forum about France.

[/quote] That's the point isn't it. Franglais can and does hinder communication. This is an english language forum and not everyone is either french resident or french speaking or even has a french dictionary handy.

IMO it depends on the context whether it is justified or not. Sometimes it is helpful when people post the french text of a regulation etc but at other times it just gives the impression that person slipping into franglais is just showing off. As Betty said "Pretentious, moi!"

However my apologies to the OP for taking this thread so far off topic. Perhaps we should start a different thread on this subject

[Benjamin]

I often wonder how many of the franglais posters on this forum regularly post on purely French speaking sites.

[Evianers]

We seem here to have become 100% off topic.

Our original posting was to bring to everyone's attention the discrepancies of what one pays in supermarket bills.

[mint]

[quote user="Rabbie"]
IMO it depends on the context whether it is justified or not. Sometimes it is helpful when people post the french text of a regulation etc but at other times it just gives the impression that person slipping into franglais is just showing off. As Betty said "Prentitious, moi!"

However my apologies to the OP for taking this thread so far off topic. Perhaps we should start a different thread on this subject

[/quote]

See, sometimes the English word evades even the best of us![:P][I]

Frimeuse, moi?

Mais non alors......[:P]

Edit:  ah, need to get back on topic so...I'm off to look for that shower trap I posted about on another thread and I shall be sure to check the bill and not let the shop overcharge me for it![blink]

Edit 2:  Well, I have just proved my own point to myself (if to no one else), I mean to say the word "eludes" me and not "evades"  LOL, could have been thinking about the tax bill that is to come.  These word associations (Freudian slips) are giving me away [:-))]