During my last stay en france I developed (finally) a feel for which ones were good/bad, which one was the equivalent our our netto, and which one our sainsburys.

I am going next week, and have managed to erase all this info from my memory.

Intermarche, Geant, Champion, Casino or Carrefour? What are peoples opinions?

Isn’t Geant the name for the supermarket version of Casino which are normally more like convenience stores?

Casino – co-op
Carrefour / hyper u – massive sainburies
Intermarche – asda/tesco

Recently we shopped at Carrefour, Leclerc and a couple of others. all of them were fine with a significantly wider selection of good quality fruit and vegetables than you can find in the UK.

What aP said – they’re all about the same, and much better than here. Except in the milk department.

all of them were fine with a significantly wider selection of good quality fruit and vegetables than you can find in the UK.

Agreed there. Not entirely what is wrong with us (the people of the UK), we presumably just don’t like large peppers and generally have only half the knowledge of what to do with fresh produce.

L’eclerc (sp?) – Asda (but no where near as grim)
Super U – Half way between Coop (pricey) and Waitrose (pricey but worth it if you’ve got the cash)

not a fan of supermarkets, but living just over the border in San Sebastian, going to carrefour is like dreamland. More than two varieties of potato is sheer luxury. They even have Weetabix.

Le Clerc is great, so much choice and live Lobsters 🙁 always feel sorry for the lobsters.

Super U Hyper U just depends on what size they are.

I don’t know when you were last in France, but Champion got swallowed up by Carrefour several years ago.
Coming to think about it, it was around the time fresh milk became readily available. 😉

Anyway, where we used to live was a couple of km from a humongous Carrefour which was teh awsum. Now we are equal distances from a Hyper U, an Intermarché and a Leclerc drive. The U is better for foreign food ,the choice of beer and the best wine selection for a rural supermarket ever! The Intermarché is better for fresh meat and fish (they always have the best fish counters) and the Leclerc is drivethrough only …

Except in the milk department.

I don’t mind it, odly.

Carrefour is definitely like ASDA

DrJ – Member

What aP said – they’re all about the same, and much better than here. Except in the milk department.

Really? I thought they are pretty terrible, the big ones look like Costco, dripping with tat and the small ones don’t have much of a range – they seem to be very French in so much as they don’t sell a lot of crap packaged food, but very British in so much as the quick and easy stuff they sell is incredibly boring and bland.

I am somewhat held back of course because my diet is largely chilli and spices based and they’re terrified of anything that doesn’t taste of ham or cheese.

The carrefour in Frejus was amazing. They had proper Japanese sushi chefs working in store. Way better food choice than we have here too.

The carrefour in Frejus was amazing

That one is a cracker, proper day out.

Go Karting and decathlon in Frejus is also world class (as both go).

Strange thing is in 2009 my mother moved back to the UK-Shropshire from France-Brittany and said in her opinion the UK supermarkets had overtaken the French by some margin for both choice & quality & price in most instances!

Except in the milk department.

We noticed that. 🙁

At Grimaud you can buy a proper scooter at the Geant

I swear I’ve been to a French supermarket in Brittany that had a shotgun cabinet (admittedly probably about fifteen years ago).

French supermarkets do have a somewhat overwhelming display of some old tat near the entrance, but once you get past that the selection of fruit and vegetables are usually very good, and the cheeses excellent. And even better a lower taxed wine aisle.
In 2 weeks touring (returning Friday last) we didn’t go into a shoddy French supermarket, we certainly would have managed it in the UK. Although I do usually buy groceries from Whole Foods – so my typical shopping experience is a bit skewed anyway. The hot’n’spicy stuff comes from the local convenience store 3 minutes walk away from home.