Wish List
Note: this is a list of things I miss a lot from the US. I plan to update this regularly, so if you are ever sending me something or visiting, please check back! I have found, and am finding, french equivelents that are OK, but there are always certain products you just can't replace. Of course, I will have a similar list when we move from France back to the US--because there are some wonderful things here, too!So, should a cherry chapstick be stuck in the envelope or in your suitcase, I would be a very happy lady.
So far, I cannot find in France and miss...
*Cherry Chapstick!
*Vaseline Intensive Care Lotion
*OPI nail polish (Sephora only has a few colors, like 5 of the 2 bazillion they make.)
*Contact Solution (Renu no rub or generic) that doesn't cost 14 euros a bottle!!!
*Tony Chachere's Original Creole/Cajun Seasoning (in the little green can with the red top)
*Smucker's reduced sugar jam (not the one with Nutrasweet)
*Splenda
*Aveeno lotion (we like the green--no menthol, no lavendar.)
*REAL Qtips (with the cardboard stems)
*Peanut butter dog biscuits--the big ones (this is Lucy, obviously)
*Oops Scoops Poop bags (from Madison, WI--for Lucy as well! I hope you knew that.)
*Puffs extra soft tissues (no lotion)
*Excedrin (they have Advil at "La Pharmacie"--but no Excedrin. I am OK on my supply right now, though.)
******
Note: I have a good source for peanut butter and it's not too expensive. They call it "Pate d'Arachide"--sounds like Arachnid paste, doesn't it? Mmmm...spider paste. Yuck! Maybe that's why the french don't eat it--plus, the peanut's name in french is "cacahuete"-- and you know what "caca" is [same thing in English]--not too appetizing! I guess I can hardly blame them. If we called it spider paste or poop butter, I don't know if I'd eat it either...
Note #2: Got an email from my Dad tonight that said he's sending some cherry chapstick in with the new Converse All Stars I ordered for us from Zappos--yay! I guess it's a blessing that Zappos won't mail to France--my "supplier" can hook me up. These chappy lips will be soft and cherry-scented in no time.
Woo hoo!!!! Thanks, Dad!
6 Comments:
Hi !
Note that one reason that many American products are not on sale here is that they are, quite simply, prohibited.
This is because they contain an "artifical" something … and that something is the food coloring ! Many of them are forbidden here (and in the EU generally). We usually have our US food colors sent here well in advance of Christmas (cookies) and Easter (eggs). Molasses usually contains prohibited food coloring, as do US Coca-Cola, Pepsi and a whole lot of other products. I'm not sure about Dr. Pepper, though (it's on sale at Real McCoy, so I guess it managed to pass customs). Certain Kool-Aid flavors are definitely prohibited (another item we have sent, along with beef jerky). (Kool Aid turned out to be excellent as a dye for cloth and yarn, by the way, on the advice of one of the Paris bloggers …).
Offhand, I'd imagine that your Chapstick contains the prohibited US red coloring. Smucker's jam probably does, too.
US over-the-counter drugs and medecines like Excedrin and Contac are generally prohibited here. The pharmacies have a lock on selling pills and medications. (smile) Some "parapharmacie" products are available in stores such as Leclerc and Inno, for example, 70% alcohol. Pure 100% alcohol is theoretically only available in pharmacies.
Last time I was in Brussels I saw genuine Q-Tips on sale in a shop. By the way, if you have connections to the US military, you might want to check out opportunities to visit the PXs in Germany – what remains of them, anyway. (smile) You might also want to work up a shopping list and do some grocery shopping there in German stores, where the prices are significantly lower than those in France. This is the kind of cross border hop which is easy to do if, for example, you go to Alsace to visit a Christmas market in December … it's not cost-effective if you go just for the shopping, though, unless you spend upward of 1000 euros or so …
L'Amerloque
Thanks Ronica..I was JUST going to ask you what you would like from here. If there was anything you missed. I guess there are a few things. You might get some boring, but American "necessities" for Xmas.
Smucker's does. I checked. I do have a friend who works in Kaiserslautern (Rammstein) so maybe she can hook me up the next time she comes.
Thanks for the tips. :)
Weird that the french are fine with eating intestines and leaving moldy cheeses out at room temperature for days, but won't allow some pink food coloring in the chapstick.
Though Chanel seems to use something pink in their lipstick.
Who knows?
For me the only solution for PeanutButter over the past 15 years has been to pack a large cardboard box of peanut butter to last about a year ! For cheaper pharmacy stuff, besides bringing your US advil with you, there is a "best kept secret" parapharmacie in St. Germain des Pres called Citypharma (at the intersection of rue du Four and rue Bonaparte) -- it is always crowded but most of their stuff is about 15 - 30% cheaper than regular pharmacies - they sell skin care lines, as well as aspirin and advil substitutes... FYI
Hello Mrs B.
Just a quick note to let you know that if you want wheap contact solution you just need to go to a Pharmacy and ask ofr a liter or Half liter of "Serum Physiologique" (say no if they want to sell you capsules.
Very cheap and same thing as 14 euro contact solutions...
Best kept in the fridge after you opened it.
Cheers.
Forget about your dear American products, and discover the French ones! This is part of the whole experience. Live as French people, eat and drink like them, and stay away from other Americans (in the US, we avoid French like plague!).
Just my 2 cents..
JM-
Post a Comment
<< Home