Is it expensive to live in France?
It was one of the first questions we had looked at when we decided to start this little adventure. And while we're guests and not exactly living here as a complete picture (housing costs, taxes, all the fun things that make up regular life), But one thing I can tell you is that not only are the rumors that the food here tasting fresher than in the US true, but the cost of food is also less - in some cases, much less.
I used our most expensive grocery run as an example so you can see what that looks like. This did include a 8.5 kg turkey for Christmas for 28 euros and 4 large slices of fresh ham cut by the butcher for 15 euros. Yes, the turkey was pretty expensive, especially when I could get a bird two or three times that size for less.
That said, here is all the food we bought for 222 euros.
Without the turkey, it would have been less than 200 euros.
There is no way I could have picked all that up for that amount. Even with a turkey costing far less, everything else would have been a whole lot more expensive.
For example, the water you see on the counter (which is soo good), is only 3 euros. The bag of carrots only costs 1,75 euros.
On a regular week, we spent 125 to 160 euros to feed all of us, including snacks, toiletries, and pet supplies.
For example, we just went shopping for this week's food and spent 144 euros:
Our Thoughts on the French Food from the Store:
Outside of costs, what do we think of the foods we've eaten?
Overall, it is fresher and fills us up faster, but that doesn't mean it hasn't taken some getting used to. Here's some of the staples we noticed the most:
Sprite. I LOVE Sprite. It's the only pop I drink in the States. But here, I won't touch it. Sprite doesn't taste the same - it almost has no taste at all. I tried twice and haven't since.
But Coke: it tastes the same, but in the States, it bothers my stomach. Here it does not. And we drink it far more than we should because ...
Fiinding something here to drink has been the hardest part of being in France. Juices tastes much different here. Pop tastes much different here. And we don't drink, so I can't tell you anything about the wine or other alcohol.
Sour cream has a much different taste than in the States, and while it's not bad, it has taken us the near 90 days that we've been here to get used to it. I still miss American sour cream, but we've all gotten used to it.
No cottage cheese here. The closest thing to it is fromage blanc - or at least that's what we've been told. It's ... different.
Don't laugh - McDonald's and Burger King tastes waaayyyy better here. My youngest is a very picky eater, so being in another country has been the biggest challenge food-wise. She does fine when I cook in the house, but when we are out and about, well, let's just say we've eaten more burgers in the last three months than we ever have. It's fine. This won't be forever and she still eats what she needs in the house. But all that said, both burgers taste far better in the States and are made fresh to order. Side note: McDonald's is more expensive than back in the States while Burger King is far less.
Pork Roast & Potatoes
I've made a lot of our favorite meals here - fajitas, enchiladas, spaghetti, potato casserole - and they've all been very good. Even our favorite Mac and cheese recipes for the holidays came out sooo good. But our favorite meal here has been a pork roast wrapped in bacon and topped with ham and Swiss cheese. We've only seen it at the butcher, and it is on the expensive side at 30 euros, but it's so amazingly good. And it does feed all four of us for two nights, so it works out not to be quite as bad. If you are ever in France, you have to try it.
Eggs and bacon
Got any questions or curious about one of your favorite foods? Let me know!