French supermarket opening on Sunday afternoons

[bohrsatom]

I love cycle touring in France, but one of tougher bits of being self sufficient is finding food on Sundays and - to a lesser extent - Mondays when many boulangeries, cafes and restaurants are closed.

I've noticed that Sunday morning supermarket opening is much more widespread than when I first toured in France almost 10 years ago, but to avoid the risk of going hungry I generally buy tinned food on a Saturday evening to cover Sunday lunch and dinner with the hope of finding a baguette as I ride the next morning.

On my trip last month I was surprised to see a Geant Casino supermarket in Aurillac advertising being open on a Sunday afternoon. I thought this was a misprint but it turned out to be true, and in a typically French way. Labour laws forbid permanent staff working on Sunday afternoons, so when the clock strikes 1pm all shop staff are sent home and replaced by a handful of (agency) workers who a) help you with the self checkouts and b) make sure you're not stealing anything.

Unsurprisingly it's a controversial move - https://www.thelocal.fr/20190809/french ... ed-society (and plenty more available in French)

Controversial, but a useful change for bike tourists?

[francovendee]

Apart from major cities I think there are very few supermarkets open on Sunday afternoons.
Our nearest supermarkets are open on Sunday mornings in July and August only.
When I moved here there were no supermarkets open on Sundays but what I found was that it didn't bother me but the DIY stores being closed did.
I was trying to make our pile of stones habitable and it seemed I'd always need something urgently on a Sunday.
After 20 years here I think the French have the work/life balance about right.

[simonhill]

Shops being closed for a day or more can be a problem when touring. Goes back to another post on how much spare space you have in your panniers.

Have to remember where you are. I recently toured in Portugal - open, I think; Spain - mainly closed; France - usually closed; UK - open.

Closing must make stock control more difficult with the dreaded best before dates. One thing I found in France on a previous trip is lots of fresh food discounted in French supermarkets on Saturday afternoon. Fresh raspberries half price, whoopee.

[RobinS]

I can happily cope with supermarkets being closed Sundays, this happens in much of Europe, and is therefore predictable. What catches me out are "surprise" bank holidays with closed shops, often on Mondays! We buy extra to see us through Sunday, but then when we find that France particularly has another of the fortnightly bank holidays we have several times been down to our last "emergency" meal. While it can be a bit of a pain to have supermarkets closed, I must admit I am in favour of closure, as it goes alongside a better work-life balance and way of life.

[Jdsk]

I once stupidly lifted a fully-laden tourer by the saddle and pulled it off its rails. At 1500 on a Saturday afternoon with the shops due to be closed on Sunday and Monday. This wasn't going to be much fun.

So I rode carefully into the nearest town (La Ferté Macé) and on the right at the top of the hill there was a bike shop with a window full of more saddles than I've ever seen assembled in one place before. Apparently this sort of thing happens if you have lived a good life. ; - )

And with the cheapest fitted we rolled on to the extraordinary architecture of Bagnoles-de-l'Orne. Both seated.

Jonathan

[bikes4two]

On my trip last month I was surprised to see a Geant Casino supermarket in Aurillac advertising being open on a Sunday afternoon.

What a shame - another errosion of family time where all get together.

I've toured a fair bit in France (and other parts of Europe) and knowing of the Sunday shop hours has never presented a problem - it's called advance planning.

On the other hand, it's easy to get caught out by the public holidays if you don't use Mr Google to maximum advantage.

[beeb]

we usually make Sundays a rest day or a short hop day

[Psamathe]

I can happily cope with supermarkets being closed Sundays, this happens in much of Europe, and is therefore predictable. What catches me out are "surprise" bank holidays with closed shops, often on Mondays!...

Before I visit any country I load the holidays calendar (for the country often plus neighbouring countries) into my devices (iPhone, iPad, though works with Androids as well). I use https://www.officeholidays.com/countries which gives you a "subscribe" option/URL which adds their calendar to your calendar app which will normally download all the public holidays for the country showing them as calendar events. On iDevices you can load several countries at the same time and once you return home, unsubscribe the calendars and they all disappear. You only need a data connection (e.g. Wi-Fi) when initially subscribing as al holidays are cached into your local calendar app.

(When I lived in France, whilst they have more public holidays than we do, those holidays are on the day they are meant to be (not moved adjacent to weekend) which means that 2/7 are lost as they happen weekends).

Ian

[jacobean]

Very useful site Ian.

Can anyone explain to me why, if France is meant to be a secular country, how come they have so many religion-related bank holidays?

[Jdsk]

Can anyone explain to me why, if France is meant to be a secular country, how come they have so many religion-related bank holidays?

I see what you mean. It's part of the complicated constitutional and social settlement. I don't know if it was a controversial point in the adoption of the relevant constitutions. Laicisation was mostly about separation of the Catholic Church from the state but it didn't require France to abandon all of its history.

And I don't know what happened in practice to the historic religious holidays during the short period of the Republican Calendar:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Re ... n_calendar

Jonathan

[speedsixdave]

In France I generally work on the premise that Nearly Everything Is Shut Nearly All Of The Time, and find this serves me quite well. If you see a shop open, stock up on stuff, and make sure you've always got some emergency dry supplies in the way of nuts, cereal bars etc.

I did a long ride to Luchon a few years ago on a Bank Holiday where absolutely nothing was open - every village I thought
there must be a bar or a tabac or petrol station or something open, but no luck at all. And then caught out again at La Mongie having climbed the Tourmalet, where everyone went home at 6pm and the whole town shut, leaving me with no food for the night. Nuts, chocolate and emergency whisky for dinner that night!

[jacobean]

Can anyone explain to me why, if France is meant to be a secular country, how come they have so many religion-related bank holidays?

I see what you mean. It's part of the complicated constitutional and social settlement. I don't know if it was a controversial point in the adoption of the relevant constitutions. Laicisation was mostly about separation of the Catholic Church from the state but it didn't require France to abandon all of its history.

And I don't know what happened in practice to the historic religious holidays during the short period of the Republican Calendar:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Re ... n_calendar

Jonathan

Thanks Jonathan. Interesting link.

[jacobean]

In France I generally work on the premise that Nearly Everything Is Shut Nearly All Of The Time, and find this serves me quite well

After being burnt so many times by erratic French opening hours, I too worked off this assumption in France this summer.

For example, if passing one of the those boulangeries that also did sandwiches I would not miss the opportunity because sure enough the only restaurant in the destination town would be closed.

[RobinS]

In France I generally work on the premise that Nearly Everything Is Shut Nearly All Of The Time

A good premise, supermarkets closed Sundays and Bank Holidays, and have seen them closed Saturday afternoons as well. Everywhere has an early closing day as well, sometimes "all day closed", which is a problem when you ride an area where they are closed Tuesdays, then the next day you get to an area where they are closed Wednesdays! Many places supermarkets are closed for up to three hours for lunch, restaurants when open for lunch often stop serving at 1pm or 1:30, and dinner won't start until 7 or even 8pm. Remember riding into Soissons on a Bank Holiday once, campsite reception didn't open until 5pm, so we rode into the city for drink while we waited - we road around for ages, as everything was shut, even the bars! Finally found just the one bar open in the whole city. it contributed to our view of Soissons as an unwelcoming place, especially as when finally checked in to the campsite it was pretty uninspiring as well!

All that said, France is still a great place for cycletouring!

[jacobean]

In France I generally work on the premise that Nearly Everything Is Shut Nearly All Of The Time

sometimes "all day closed", which is a problem when you ride an area where they are closed Tuesdays, then the next day you get to an area where they are closed Wednesdays!

Not forgetting of course, you can also get caught out by the:

"Fermé pour inventaire"

I mean I've never seen any other supermarket in any other European country that closes during a work-day for stocktaking!

All that said, France is still a great place for cycletouring!

I agree. Their lush countryside and quality of food is unsurpassed! And dare I say, their drivers are actually very courteous and careful.