Grocery shopping in France

Do you live in a major city or not? 

Your shopping habits will vary if you live in a major French city, or in a suburban/rural area. In all major cities in France, you’ll find supermarkets within the city limits. There are small shops where you can find all most products, fewer than in huge supermarkets, but don’t worry, it’s enough for everyday life. You’ll find them everywhere across urban areas. There usually are around 3 or 4 in your neighbourhood. To give an example, within a 500m radius of my home, there are 2 Carrefour, 1 Intermarché, and 2 Franprix and 2 Monoprix.

Inside cities, these shops usually open from 9 or 10 am until 9 or 10 pm, and they are open on Sundays.

On the contrary, in the suburbs or rural areas, the “Centre Commercial” will be your go-to place. It’s a mall organised around a hypermarket. A hypermarket is a very, very large grocery store that also sells other essentials, like Walmart in the US.

These shops have less broad opening hours and most of the time are closed on Sundays and sometimes during lunch hours. Make sure you pick the right time or day to get your shopping done.

The brands of these grocery shops are basically the same wherever you live. You’ll find the usual suspects: Carrefour, Monoprix, Intermarché, Leclerc, Franprix, Casino, Lidl, etc.

In big cities, you may have more choices regarding the grocery shops as you’ll have ethnic options (Asian food, African food, etc) or organic shops (Naturalia, Bio C Bon, etc.).

French people shop outside of supermarkets for specific items

French people are what you may call “gourmet” and if their budget allows it, they will get their cheese, bread, meat, and alcohol in dedicated shops. This is often the case in larger cities where a lot of shops are in a small area. It also happens elsewhere if it’s possible to directly source products from the producer.

Here are the names of the shops : 

Bakery = Boulangerie

Butcher = Boucherie

Cheese shop = Fromagerie

The liquor shop that you’ll find most often in France is Nicolas. It’s not an off-license, so you’ll only be able to get alcohol during normal opening hours. They have very decent products that range from medium to higher/top quality.

What time should I go grocery shopping?

You may hear that French people shop daily and that the supermarket down in the street is their fridge. That may be true in big cities where you’ll see long lines at the cashier with people merely buying a couple of leeks, a bottle of wine, and some ham.

However, everywhere else, you plan your shopping ahead because the opening hours are not that flexible!

How do I go to the market?

If you’re a fan of markets and know the producer closely, a lot of options are available to you. In most cities in France, there is a weekly or bi-weekly market. You’ll find all the info if you follow this link.

For people living in Paris, the info will be this way.

Tip: if you like fresh produce, you can register with an AMAP (association de maintien de l’agriculture paysanne = Association to maintain agricultural production).

How does it work: every week you get a selection of products (vegetables etc.) based on seasonality, meaning you don’t choose them. So you may get leeks and potatoes one week and the next time, chard and sorrel. Here is the official website to register.

How does it work for off-licenses? 

We have all been in this position, 2 am, the party is going nicely, but the drink level is getting low and you need to reload. Shops are closed and bars too, so where are you going to go?

To an off-license!

These shops are open until quite late and offer a nice variety of soft drinks, booze, crisps, biscuits, etc. The catch is that the prices are quite high. In conclusion, these shops should remain your last resort. We don’t recommend shopping there for your everyday needs.

You’ll notice the off-licenses usually have the word “épicerie” in their name.