We are approaching our 17th anniversary of arriving in Le Val aux Moines, the years have flown by and the plans we originally arrived with have changed.
For instance the perfect house would be situated within a village, close to a boulongerie, charcuterie and a bar (for morning coffee of course!) there would also be a weekly market. Our house would have a lovely big kitchen of course ……….
In reality the kitchen is tiny! We live 500 m outside of our village, which doesn’t have any shops never mind a weekly market.
We are sited at the end of a lane that leads into open fields and woodland, we have one neighbour. It’s wonderfully quiet and peaceful and perfect for Ash, our English Setter and our 2 cats, Skye and Wiggins.
The nearest shops are in Gennes Val de Loire and Les Rosiers-sur-Loire. Both towns are small having approx populations of 2,500 each. The towns are separated by the river Loire and connected by the Pont de Gennes. Small yes, but they are served by 4 boulongerie, 2 charcuterie, butcher3 bars, 2 pharmacy, 1 largish supermarket and 2 small one’s, 3 banks and 6 hairdressers!!!!
We also have a specialist shop dealing in wines and spirits of the area, local produce, sweet delicatessen, salty delicatessen vinegars, oils and gift ideas.
Both have a small weekly market. The Les Rosier market is extremely small – consisting of 3 or 4 stalls. Gennes market is bigger and consistently has an excellent fish stall, and of course the colourful “Basket stall”
I venture that this is fairly typical of many areas of France.
The larger towns are served by many more shops and larger supermarkets. When we arrived here in 2002 our local supermarket closed everyday at lunchtime between 12h30 & 14h00 each week day and wasn’topen Monday morning or anytime at all on Sunday. It now open everyday, including lunchtimes, but only Sunday mornings?
Coming from the UK where some supermarkets open 24 hours it was a bit of a culture shock – but after a short time we became accustomed and in fact liked the return to the ‘old ways”.
Times have also changed on the availability of certain items, when we first moved here herbs and spices were limited to herbs originating in Europe. Herbs de Provence, Oregano. Oriental and Indian spices and sauces were not on the shelves. The étrangers (strangers!) section was very limited. We were dependent on visitors arriving stocked up with goodies from the UK. Now they only bring Assam Tea Bags, baked beans, and HP sauce, (all available here, but more expensive ) and oddly enough White Wine Vinegar the unadulterated version.
The supermarkets try to favour French products and often stock a good range of local produce. This morning our local Super U had 6 variety of French apples, 2 supplied by local growers.
It is also common for the butcher and charcuterie to be open Sunday mornings.
Boulongerie open most days from early mornings until 14h00 then again late afternoon until approx 18h00. The supermarket effect of bakers closing down as in the UK does not seem to be so apparent here.
Long may in continue
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