Lay My Hat

Thinking ahead to when we open our B&B, what do you wish you'd bought in your home country and brought to France with you? Are there any items we should be looking out for and stocking up on before we make the move in 2020? For example should we be stocking up with towels in next year's January sales?

I'm sure you'll get some extensive lists, but a few to kick things off:

Paint - French paint is poor stuff, bring lots with you.
Saucepans WITH LIDS - French ones never have them
Plug-converters (you'll never have enough)
Common medicines like ibuprofen, paracetomol, etc - only available at pharmacies and very expensive
According to your location, you may find things like cotton bedding or smart furnishings difficult to find, so check out your locale in advance.

If you have favourite brands of tea, coffee, marmalade etc, it's worth bringing a supply for several months until you find an acceptable substitute. (That being said, Mrs Mols hasn't found a substitute for her favourite tea, so she relies on regular aid parcels from the family in England)

To be continued . . . no doubt.

Move your goods across before March or you may have to pay some sort of tax, or you may not!
Food stuffs if you cannot survive with out some British can be found on the interweb. If you are moving to a certain spot in France it would seem there is a British shop on every corner.
Beds could well be will be different sizes.
What you purchase really also descends on your level of French, get across what you need then why load up a Lorry horse box full of things you might not need in the end.
Some say that paint in Spain is less quality then the UK stuff. Why I do not know. I find paint just the same as everywhere else. Purchasing a pot for touching up is easier when purchasing local too.

More money!

Being serious, ops I think I was. We brought loads of stuff with us after looking at availability and prices beforehand in France as the house had previously been our holiday home. We had one bedroom full of boxes ready. This included:

Kitchen electrical equipment which just needed a simple change of plugs, ( we tested the stuff first in the uk to check it worked ok),
Kitchen odds and ends and gadgets from specialist kitchen suppliers,
Teapots,
Bedding, especially uk sized pillow cases,
New furniture,
Rugs,
Curtains.

Yes, you can get most of them here but they were a) much more expensive, b) the was far less choice, including in model ranges and c) you had to travel far more to find the right shops.

We also bought and exported a new left hand drive car as, again, it was harder to get the same specific options we wanted.

Things like tea and foodstuff ( which isn’t much) we either get from the uk or use websites for expats to order from. I’m going to put a large order in January if there’s no Brexit deal so that I’m stocked up.

As for paint, we discovered Tollens paint here in France. The paint is made for the range of temperatures here so lasts longer on exterior woodwork. The internal paint has given a very good coverage on just one coat, even in the Gite. We tried the cheaper stuff - it was terrible; poor white, thin and needed several coats!
Some French websites have good Tollens deals which we’ve used several times.

I find paint just the same as everywhere else. Purchasing a pot for touching up is easier when purchasing local too.

I despair at the quality of Spanish paint....it is very poor compare to my memories of the uk stuff, and it costs a fortune. And don't get me started on the lack of tester pots! Quite often the paint comes out nothing like the colour chart.....and it's a pain to stand for ages flicking through the charts, not like the uk where you can take a colour chart home.
I had to resort to having a friend, who was driving back from London, bring me some white gloss paint as I had painted the front door 3 times and it still looked awful. One coat with the uk one and it was done.
It's one of my biggest bugbears living here.

We're fortunate here as we have a very good British supermarket but it is expensive as he has to pay 16% tax straight off on everything. We have also recently got an Asian shop that sells Thai and Indian spices etc. I used to always bring those back when visiting.
We buy an awful lot still from the uk as it is so much cheaper and better quality; bedding, towels etc. Plus things like toasters, that are very expensive here.
When we come back from a UK visit we bring pork/game pies and xmas cake for xmas, and sausages and cheese. I don't get the fuss over manchego. English cheeses are the best IMO

Mousie (lover of cheese)
x

Agree with SW31 about Tollens - it's the best of the local paints. That being said, a shop opened near us, selling only British paints, brushes, varnishes etc and it has gone down a storm, it is popular with artisans and builders as well as private individuals.
Motto - use Tollens for big surfaces and Dulux or Crown for affordable smaller areas.

Mols

Mouse wrote: I despair at the quality of Spanish paint

It used to be poor. Leroy Merlin has an excellent range of paint. Yes they have cheap and cheeful thick as diluted skimmed milk paint but the more expensive is very good quality. Titan or Luxens all good quality.

Lidl have some good paint on offer and also BricoDepot which I think is part of the B&Q group.
I would stick with French square pillows and cases frankly.

Thanks to everyone who responded to my original post. You may like to read the blog post I wrote based on your advice and comments.

https://leroideprusse.com/2018/09/18/pa ... ing-cards/

Le roi de Prusse wrote:Thanks to everyone who responded to my original post. You may like to read the blog post I wrote based on your advice and comments.

https://leroideprusse.com/2018/09/18/pa ... ing-cards/

Hmm, regarding your comment about bra-fitting, French women are a different shape, you know. It's a gross generalisation of course, but it is noticeable that they do have different proportions as a rule from British women - my wife comments on it regularly. Re getting well-fitted underwear, France has many excellent lingerie shops (I'm assured) and going to one of these for a proper bra fitting is worth the effort and expense. Mrs Mols says she's never before felt so good as after such a visit - they take their undies very seriously over here (just don't wear them when you're splashing French paint around!)

Moliere wrote: ...they take their undies very seriously over here (just don't wear them when you're splashing French paint around!)

That sounds like very sage advice which I shall try to remember!