Buying Seeds in France

[veg4681]

There'll be plenty of opportunities to buy seeds in France when my DH goes there for his annual Summer/Autumn trips. Most likely he'd stumble across the smaller stores/supermarket like Spa type or equivalent being stranded in a town and/or near a city.

So you Brit expats out there, would you be able to tell me roughly which brands of French seeds are likely to be sold in stores like these (like we have Johnson seeds at Wilko and Suttons at B&Q). And do you know of any French websites for such brand of French seeds so that I can check them out before he goes out there.

Another small question, can you buy French variety strawberry plants/runners in garden centres in France? I'm looking for specific varieties that my DH may be able to get for me.

[TonyF]

OK, let's see what we can do here. France tends to run things on a very seasonal basis so getting seeds in a small town's small supermarkets late in the season may be difficult tho they may still be stocking some of the basics.

I wouldn't bother with the small supermarkets, I'd be looking at the larger places, large scale Leclerc supermarkets, brico sheds (Weldom and Bricomarche) and places like Jardiland and even better, France Rurale.

You seem to be asking about the cheaper end of the seed market and if you can find them, I'd look for Willemse seeds, they have a huge web site and they will send you regular updates if you subscribe and it's free.

That said, I don't buy them, mainly because I prefer to buy from the larger stores where you can get your money back if you have a total seed failure. I usually buy from the Clause Vilmorin range, it's like T&M in the UK (you can also get T&M France here) but I think the packaging, information etc is vastly superior to the UK seeds except in very specialist cases and you tend to get more for your money.

As for the strawberries, I'd be looking on line now, late summer/autumn is not the best time to buy them here as stockists are running down at that time, thinking about the winter veg and the like. And there would be very few 'French varieties' that you can't also get mail order in the UK, unless you want highly specialist types, much of what you get in brico/garden suppliers are similar to the UK and if it is very specialist stock, you certainly wouldn't find them in a garden centre, they tend to do the easy sell stuff there.

And getting mail order on plants, France to UK is as difficult as trying to get them UK to France - no technical or legal reason why not, just that many suppliers don't do that service and those that do make it hidiously expensive.

[smallblueplanet]

P&O ferries: day trip to Calais & 6 bottles of wine & 2for1 meal - £20 return

veg4681 I think you better send your DH on an early spring break!

Actually there's an offer going from P&O about midweek daytrips to France for £20 (and they give you 6 bottles of red wine! ), can't be bad....

P&O car ferries: day trip to Calais plus 6 bottles of wine & 2for1 meal - £20 return

What's the deal?

Big ferry operator P&O has a great special offer on its Dover-Calais route. You can take a car and up to 9 people on a day trip to France for £20 return, and as part of the deal you get a case of Gallo wine (6 bottles - UK RRP £26), and a 2for1 meal on the ferry itself (via vouchers).

How to grab it:

The special offer's listed on P&O UK's website , and is valid for travel between now and 19 March. Availability is limited, and Saturday round trips carry a £10 supplemental fee. Use the offer's availability checker before booking to find out when you can travel.

Book through the special offer link above (by clicking the 'Buy tickets now' button) and it'll automatically fill in the promotional code box. If it doesn't, enter 'ssdaytrippromo' in the box when booking to qualify.

Exclusions

The offer isn't available for journeys on the 9th, 10th, 16th & 17th Feb. (Just for information to get the £20 deal one of your sailings has to be 'outside' of the 09:00-17:00 time slot.)

P & O Ferry Offer - MoneySavingExpert.com Forums

Day trip offer - P&O Ferries

So when you going then?

[veg4681]

I wouldn't bother with the small supermarkets, I'd be looking at the larger places, large scale Leclerc supermarkets, brico sheds (Weldom and Bricomarche) and places like Jardiland and even better, France Rurale.

You seem to be asking about the cheaper end of the seed market and if you can find them, I'd look for they have a huge web site and they will send you regular updates if you subscribe and it's free.

That said, I don't buy them, mainly because I Willemse seeds,prefer to buy from the larger stores where you can get your money back if you have a total seed failure. I usually buy from the Clause Vilmorin range, it's like T&M in the UK (you can also get T&M France here) but I think the packaging, information etc is vastly superior to the UK seeds except in very specialist cases and you tend to get more for your money.

As for the strawberries, I'd be looking online now, late summer/autumn is not the best time to buy them here as stockists are running down at that time, thinking about the winter veg and the like. And there would be very few 'French varieties' that you can't also get mail order in the UK, unless you want highly specialist types, much of what you get in brico/garden suppliers are similar to the UK and if it is very specialist stock, you certainly wouldn't find them in a garden centre, they tend to do the easy sell stuff there.

And getting mail order on plants, France to UK is as difficult as trying to get them UK to France - no technical or legal reason why not, just that many suppliers don't do that service and those that do make it hidiously expensive.

Thanks TonyF, knew you'd be one of the first port of call for our French needs . Correct me if I'm wrong, I think the bigger supermarkets tend to be out of town but I do remember passing by Bricoleur (spelling?) from the taxi ride on the way to towns/cities.

I will note the places you've mentioned like Leclerc supermarkets, brico sheds (Weldom and Bricomarche), Jardiland and France Rurale but places like these aren't listed in travel guides (Lonely Planet, Rough Guide). Besides he doesn't always know where he's going to land.

I'd like to check out the websites (do you know them) of both the cheaper end of the market seeds and Willemse seeds (France equivalent of T&M). I could check them out before he goes to France just in case he passes by any of the outlets you mentioned. I doubt we'd be allowed to buy from T&M of France, is that correct?

Guess there is no easy way of acquiring the more exclusive French strawberry varieties but I would have thought the standard French garden centre would at least stock Mara des Bois which should be pretty common over there in contrast to Ciflorette and Charlotte.