Little Things: Grocery shopping in France

When adjusting to a new country, it's often the little things that make a big difference. Early on, there were a lot of "little things" to learn about and get used to. Now that we've been in France for 18 months, these differences seem so normal that I don't even think about them. But for the sake of other readers who may be new to France, let me share a few of the small contrasts that originally caught me off guard. I'll start with the grocery store.

• Bags - In the US I always cringed at the amount of plastic bags I was given at Wal-mart. Sometimes the cashier would put just one or two items inside each bag. They're free for the customer, so nobody seemed to care about the financial -- let alone the environmental -- cost. In France, the customers are responsible for bagging their own groceries and they also must pay for the bags. A tiny "sac plastique" costs 2 or 3 centimes, which is fine when you're just running into a store unprepared. But almost everyone here brings their own large, sturdy grocery bags for big shopping trips, or even better: a grocery caddy on wheels. 
  

• Milk - Giant gallon-sized containers don't exist here. Milk comes in 1-liter opaque jugs, which can be bought in singles or in a 6-pack. Also, most of the milk is UHT processed (ultra high temperature), so it has a long shelf life and there's no need to refrigerate it until it's opened. Personally, I think it smells funny and tastes quite different from refrigerated milk, so I only use it with cereal. We usually buy low-fat (demi-écrémé), easily recognized by blue caps no matter what the brand. Lait entier (whole milk) comes in bottles with red caps, while écrémé (fat-free) comes with green lids. 

• Eggs - Americans seem to prefer white eggs, which come from white chickens (or perhaps are bleached -- conspiracy theories abound on the internet). In the US, eggs are washed and sanitized before being sold in the supermarket. That's why they must be refrigerated -- the processing removes the natural protective coating that keeps eggs from becoming contaminated. In France, eggs are sold on the shelf at room temperature, and the same carton can include a variety of colors: brown, speckled, beige, you name it. Since they aren't pre-washed, I always wash the outside of the eggs before cracking them just in case. From time to time I find a feather (or worse) sticking to the outside of the egg -- yuck. 

• Butter - Butter comes in bricks, not sticks. A brick of butter in France is 250 grams, while a stick of American butter is 1/2 cup (113.4 grams). Converting recipes for baked goods that call for a "stick" of butter can be challenging. I usually guesstimate by using slightly less than half a brick, and the results have been just fine. Speaking of baking, recipes using the metric system use weight in grams for solid foods like flour and sugar. I still don't have a food scale; I just use my volume measuring cups and handy conversion charts I've found on the internet.

There you have it, four everyday "little" things that are different in France than America. Perhaps I'll do a part 2 another day (followed by part 3, 4, 5....) Until then remember that the little differences aren't a big deal: one is not "better" and the other "worse", they're just "different." 

And what about you? What little differences have you noticed between your home country and France? Leave a comment below!