The French Lifestyle: Buying Groceries

I've made a lot of adjustments to my life since moving here. And because I like cooking, one of the biggest changes for me has been buying groceries. I've never really explained how that works here. At home, I would always go to one of the supermarkets near my house. There were two that were within three minutes' driving distance, and I almost never went anywhere else.

Here, shopping is a little different. The big department store here, Monoprix, also has a supermarket in its basement. But usually, I just do my shopping at our local little Vival, a marché. A marché is basically a mini-supermarket. It has all the necessities like bread, milk, eggs, cheese, and (for the French) wine, with a few extras thrown in. Basically, it's like shopping the food section at Walgreens, but with fruits and some vegetables thrown in too.

However, the cheapest option is to go to a real supermarket. Everything is usually at least 50 cents--or centimes--cheaper. But the closest supermarket is at least a 10-minute walk away through winding little French streets. It may not sound like much, but it makes loading up on groceries a little more difficult when you have to carry them all home, usually with the bags cutting off the circulation to one of your limbs. However, the absolute cheapest option is to go to a hypermarché (of which there is only one in Aix), which is an even bigger store than a supermarché. The French version of Kroger is called Casino (not the best choice of names, in my opinion. I like to feel like I'm not gambling everytime I give them my credit card.) and it has three different store sizes:

Petit Casino
Casino supermarché
Casino hypermarché

Another option is the outdoor markets. You can find an amazing array of local food there: fruits, vegetables, honey, homemade sausages, breads, and the biggest variety of mushrooms I have ever seen in my life. Some of these markets also include locally-made clothing and locally-grown flowers. I'll have to remember to take pictures the next time I go.

As far as the availability of wine goes, you might find it interesting to note that it is easy to find a bottle of wine for about a euro. When it goes on sale, you can get it for even cheaper. The cheapest I have ever seen it is about 87 centimes. A bottle of water here costs just under 2 euro. So literally, wine is cheaper than water.

Who wants to come visit?