Gardian Posted January 18 Share Posted January 18 Just got back from a couple of weeks in the UK (England) and several things were (to us) more noticeable than ever. I’m not going to fill this out with a lengthy description of what I mean below - it’ll be pretty obvious to most what I’m getting at. Thus, my ‘take’ on the UK vs France .......... Positives: Choice of food to buy to buy in the supermarkets Really good pubs / restaurants It’s England ! Negatives: Traffic ........ quite simply, horrible State of the roads - potholes everywhere Roadside rubbish - why can’t people take it with them, rather than chuck it out of their car window? Fat people - they’re in France too, but nowhere near as many. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NormanH Posted January 19 Share Posted January 19 I haven't been there for about 15 years so I can't comment on what you saw, but in any case I I don't buy food in supermarkets, but in the excellent specialist shops in the indoor market where the stall holders chat to you and give advice ; and as you can see from another thread I have a choice of really good restaurants. Perhaps it depends on whether you are comparing similar places? I suspect that many here live in small towns or villages where those thing are not so easily available. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveLister Posted January 19 Share Posted January 19 As you say Norman, you are not comparing like with like. There are plenty of excellent specialist shops in the UK as well as local markets and farm shops. I can't comment on which has the greater variety in it's supermarkets but I can say that, in the UK, I hate the rise of the self service checkout. There always seems to be something that goes wrong necessitating a visit from an overworked supervisor whilst the rest of the queue just glare. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alittlebitfrench Posted January 19 Share Posted January 19 1 hour ago, NormanH said: Perhaps it depends on whether you are comparing similar places? I suspect that many here live in small towns or villages where those thing are not so easily available. Well I live in a city, and have lived 3 times in Paris and Lyon. French food is bland and no way near the level of UK food. Which is why M&S food oulets in Paris were stripped bare. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alittlebitfrench Posted January 19 Share Posted January 19 Ok.. France vs UK France its the people. The French make the country what is…and it is why I still live here. I love the French and Frenchness. I don’t have much affinity with the British as such. Peeps have become too ‘Beckham’ and pretentious. What I am saying is the British have lost their Britishness. That is the bit I don’t like much about the UK. Apart from that…I think the UK blizs the France on most levels apart from health. No particularly order… - better food - better education. Apart from French teachers the French educational system is dire…beyond awful. - Weather is better - Transport is better (controversial I know) but I think it is. - Countryside is nicer - More things to do. France is….dare I say it….boring as hell. Worse thing about the UK….too many people on such a small Island. Far too crowded. Also the TV which is dire. France vs UK….no idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noisette Posted January 19 Share Posted January 19 Spot on about the pretentiousness, ALBF. Living where I do, there’s no escaping exposure to Brits and their current preoccupations. Soooo judgemental and so much more prone than the French to insisting that everyone should conform to their views (voir fads) on diet, ecology, allergies, you name it 😁 Even that is to a certain extent subject to a town/countryside divide. Given that there’s not a huge amount of countryside left in England ( note England, not UK) perhaps that explains it? Things are following the same course here, though, gradually. The littering, the media dependency, the crazy municipal/political decisions....all the joys of 21st century civilisation, quoi? 😉 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anotherbanana Posted January 19 Share Posted January 19 Fortunately France is big enough to hide plenty of Brits without their being too visible. I never seem to see any who reside here and avoid those in the wine ( whine) aisle of thesupermarket. To be serious, good food either side of the Channel but M and S, Sainsbury’s, Cook are light years better than anything in France. Except for fish which is truly excellent in this neck of the woods. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cajal Posted January 19 Share Posted January 19 5 hours ago, anotherbanana said: Except for fish, which is truly excellent in this neck of the woods. France's largest fishing fleet, Scapêche, is owned by Intermarché. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anotherbanana Posted January 19 Share Posted January 19 Plenty on sale here with huge queues for good stuff at the fish counters. Herring season is short but always a sell out, for example. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gardian Posted January 20 Author Share Posted January 20 Looking back on this thread, there’s two things that I’d like to expand on : First (and as a UK positive), the range of ‘prepared meals’ which are available in the UK. We were visiting friends when we were over there and they’re hardly up to cooking for themselves, let alone for guests. So we brought the food from M & S and excellent it was too. It took barely half an hour to cook and was voted a big hit, almost as if we’d cooked it from scratch. Second (and as a UK negative), the roadside ‘debris’ that you see just about everywhere. It’s not the first time that we’ve noticed it, but it just seemed worse than ever. France may not be perfect, but certainly you don’t see what I’m alluding to around here. In the UK, it seemed to be worse than ever. How much of that can be blamed on the local authorities for not getting their people to deal with it, I simply don’t know. More (much, much more) the ‘droppers’ I suspect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loiseau Posted January 21 Share Posted January 21 I quite agree about the fantastic range prepared meals available in the U.K., Gardian. Not just from M&S, but from Sainsbury's, Tesco, Waitrose and Cook. In France I always feel that any such offerings in their supermarkets give you the feeling that the makers despise anyone to idle to cook for themselves. It may be different in cities, where there are posh traiteurs, but here in the U.K. availability is pretty much nationwide. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NormanH Posted January 21 Share Posted January 21 8 hours ago, Gardian said: Looking back on this thread, there’s two things that I’d like to expand on : First (and as a UK positive), the range of ‘prepared meals’ which are available in the UK. We were visiting friends when we were over there and they’re hardly up to cooking for themselves, let alone for guests. So we brought the food from M & S and excellent it was too. It took barely half an hour to cook and was voted a big hit, almost as if we’d cooked it from scratch. Second (and as a UK negative), the roadside ‘debris’ that you see just about everywhere. It’s not the first time that we’ve noticed it, but it just seemed worse than ever. France may not be perfect, but certainly you don’t see what I’m alluding to around here. In the UK, it seemed to be worse than ever. How much of that can be blamed on the local authorities for not getting their people to deal with it, I simply don’t know. More (much, much more) the ‘droppers’ I suspect. Thanks for the clarification Gardian. Now I understand what you meant about the range of food in Supermarkets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anotherbanana Posted January 22 Share Posted January 22 The fresh meat sold in some French supermarkets is very low quality, particularly the beef and lamb whereas in, say Sainsbury’s and MnS it is excellent, well hung and prepared. And, more and more one knows where it has come from and is not just say unhung old cow fresh from the abbatoir. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori Posted January 22 Share Posted January 22 7 minutes ago, anotherbanana said: The fresh meat sold in some French supermarkets is very low quality, particularly the beef and lamb Agree 1000%. We now buy from our local butcher in our tiny town. His sources are made very clear and his products are some of the best I have ever tasted. It helps that his prices are incredibly competitive. He just opened shop last April, so I do hope he stays. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NormanH Posted January 22 Share Posted January 22 Yet the best butcher in the village in the Ariège where I had a second place for a while was in the Carréfour shop. They had a policy of having a % of local produce, and in this case it went as far as letting a local butcher source and run the meat counter. The fruit was also from local orchards, so at that period I did venture in to a supermarket. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
menthe Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 Perhaps it's fortunate that nowadays I eat very little meat and haven't had a steak for perhaps more than 20 years so whether the meat is well hung is of only academic interest. There are any number of sources of local fruit and veg and I tend to buy what I can from a small cooperative with their veg beds in the grounds of a local chateau and sell their produce within yards of where they grow the stuff. Of course, we are in duck country but the two big duck farms in our village have stopped production since the avian flu epidemic a couple of years ago. I went for a long weekend of walking in the south of the Dordogne a few years ago and found that all the meals (well, the lunches and dinners) consisted of duck in one form or another...rilettes de canard, confit de carnard, carnard fumé for entrées, magret de canard, parmentier de canard...you get the idea. For at least 2 or 3 years after that, I couldn't look at or even smell duck cooking. Still only eat it in restos or other people's houses as I can't stand the smell of it cooking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anotherbanana Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 Another difference I have noted between here and there; we were in Wimbledon a while ago and there seemed to be quite a number of private hospitals or medical facilities ( not old folk’s homes). I suppose that the massive NHS waiting lists have caused the private sector to flourish. Well, it is one way to get medical treatment. I dont see many such facilities in France; round here there are a couple but clearly integrated into the State sector. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NormanH Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 I don't know of any totally private "cliniques" around here, but there are several cliniques in and around the town that are run as private businesses, but whose fees are re-imbursed by the Social Security and Mutuelles. The big difference is that in the public Hospital there are teams of salaried staff, with a senior consultant, and a couple of assistants, so there is always somebody on duty. In the private cliniques a surgeon for example will be present for the operation, and perhaps do some rounds in the evening, but the rest of the time will be a way doing private consultations, perhaps in a "cabinet" in town. The consultants are not salaried, and are paid for each medical "act" , so this can lead to abuse by which relatively unnecessary procedures are done and then billed to the Social Security. There are staff in the office who are trained to look through your medical history, and see if they can find anything that they could do which can be charger for under the pretext it was necessary. This happens because they know that these acts will be paid for by the Social Security. For example I was in for an examination of the state of my heart arteries, which was to be done by my own consultant the next morning. In the evening another consultant came to give me an ECG, which wasn't needed, and again the next day before I was discharged. In the public Hospital which is not there to make a profit, just to treat you, incentive for this wasteful and costly behaviour. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anotherbanana Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 Agreed, Norman, but at least you did not have to wait one year plus for your treatment/ operation or were not written off as ‘having had a good innings’ and no treated any longer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NormanH Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 True, though whether the metaphor would be understood in France is a different matter😄 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anotherbanana Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 Had France played cricket it would be a happier nation!😜 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
menthe Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 Doesn't need to play cricket. But they are getting very good at rugby. I was watching some of the championship games and I was greatly surprised to be made aware of so many rugby teams all round the country. I also read somewhere that more tv viewers are watching rugby than footfall though I find that hard to believe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Judith Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 On 22/01/2024 at 13:41, anotherbanana said: The fresh meat sold in some French supermarkets is very low quality, particularly the beef and lamb whereas in, say Sainsbury’s and MnS it is excellent, well hung and prepared. And, more and more one knows where it has come from and is not just say unhung old cow fresh from the abbatoir. Whereas around here it has gone downhill .. since the butcher (within a supermarket, popular for miles) retired and new butchers arrived, the quailty and choice is much reduced ..I have started buying my steak from an Irish supplier .. as yes, the prepared meals in UK supermarkets doesn't just run rings round the limited offerings here, they are in a differnt league of Olympic standards IMHO. They do allow you to make a meal from scratch which taste like home-made. My sister is a very good cook, but has difficulty standing now, so she plans the meals, buys from Tesco online, hubby cooks it all, and serves it up, and you would not know it was not home made. I have been royally fed when with them. Oh for that possibility here .. and traiteurs do not do that sort of meal as far as I can see. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NormanH Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 (edited) Traiteurs tend to be outside caterers for special occasions. My local butcher also offers 'plats cuisinés' as do several places in Les Halles. They are closer to 'ready meals' t than the full menus offered by 'traiteurs' as you just buy the quantity of a prepared dish that you need https://boucherie-reverdel.fr/espace-dejeuner/ and https://boucherie-reverdel.fr/galerie/ This is a dish from one of the places in Les Halles https://www.facebook.com/reel/372003798863519 I have never seen anything edible in a supermarket here that could be called a ready meal except dubious-looking boxes with plastic tubs in them🤑 but with these "plats cuisinés" readily available elsewhere I don't need them Edited January 23 by NormanH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NormanH Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 I forgot this link to the place where the butcher offers complete 'kits' of all the ingredients for some traditional dishes. The quantities are too large for a single person but could provide the basis for a familial meal https://boucherie-reverdel.fr/boucherie/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Please sign in to comment
You will be able to leave a comment after signing in
Sign In Now