Shopping for living

This is a totally new experience for me... shopping for sustenance. I ve had to go out almost every day buying stuff like water, milk, rice, detergent (!) and what not. So it has been kinda like setting up a household. And the shopkeeper`s of Paris are not making it any easier...

Pro-Paris fact 5

There are plenty of self-service mini-supermart type shops, so you d hardly ever have to travel far for anything. The shops sell everything from cheese to liquor, though I wouldn`t vouch for the quality of the latter, and since you have to just go in and pick them up, the language problem is somewhat alleviated.

Anti-Paris fact 2

The common articles do not have an MRP listed on them. So every shopkeeper sets his own price. And some of them really take you for a ride. The bigger problem is that a shop that sells one article cheaper may not be as benevolent with others, so your situation may reduce to buying milk from one place, juice from another and rice from a third. Research well before you settle down to buying from one place...

A good place for buying most things can be large stores like FRANPRIX, MONOPRIX, CHAMPION or GO2...although the prices may not be the best for all articles, these are a good bet if you want to do most of your shopping from one spot.

Lessons learnt 1

When the French say mineral water, they really do mean mineral water. Unlike back home, all brands taste different. I discovered this rather painfully on my second day when I bought a six bottle (= 9 litre) pack of water, lured mainly by the discount they were offering. Anyway, the water tastes like well water from my village. And apart from having the very unpleasant effect of making me feel guilty for not visiting my grandma for all these years, also makes me a little sick in the stomach.