: Thu Mar 12, 2009 8:48 pm  

rlspa wrote:

I lived in the south of France for three months, twenty years ago and beer was expensive then. Lets be honest lager drinkers ought to be ripped off for their lack of taste. The French actually manage to produce a quite nice alcoholic drink out of grape juice, and you won't mind spending £6 for a pint of it !!

When we were in Collioure last summer, we frequently paid around €4 for a carafe of wine in good restaurants. It'd be the house rosé usually – and locally-produced, therefore. And it was unfailing perfectly decent, with some being very good indeed. One night, when we wanted a bottle to take back to our hotel, we picked up a very enjoyable bottle of red for €3. I The corkscrew (which we still have and will go back to Collioure with us this year) cost more.

: Thu Mar 12, 2009 8:57 pm  

Mintball wrote:

Having said that, we tend to benefit – you seem to win big brownie points if you're England AND you make an effort. We usually end up with free drinks at some point in any foreign trip. Mind, we don't go to tourist bars to down Guinness or Fosters. We stick to proper local bars and cafés.

I went on a couple of trips to Perpignan in the early 90s when GB regularly played France down there, and because some of us were prepared to speak french, or try to, we got welcomed with open arms, one bar refused to let us pay for our first round, and charged us a pittance for the rest of the beers we had there (I still have a length of Catalan flag that the landlady gave me)

Being an RL fan in perps, trying to speak french and not being a streotypical drunken lager lout gave me some of the best memories of RL ever.

In a totally non RL context, trying to speak Italian in Rome got us loads more help then too.

Maybe the key is to not be a drunken, obnoxious idiot?

: Thu Mar 12, 2009 9:59 pm  

I was in Paris autumn last year and didn't have any problems (it was very expensive - due partly to exchange rates), but people were generally very friendly. My French has never been too clever, but I can order drinks and food, and find that if you make an effort then people will forgive the mangled attempts, and will help you. Beer in bars was very expensive, but I wasn't there to drink so for the most part I tended to get a small carafe of house wine with a meal, and had a couple of shop bought beers with the picnic lunches we usually took in various parks and gardens.

: Thu Mar 12, 2009 10:09 pm  

when i went i was still smoking and my lighter broke, boy did i have problems getting a new one but i got there in the end ....briche or summat ?? !!! the woman shopkeeper was laughing at me i presumed at my pronunciation - or it could have been my hand movement trying to explain what i wanted

: Thu Mar 12, 2009 10:16 pm  

GIANT DAZ wrote:

when i went i was still smoking and my lighter broke, boy did i have problems getting a new one but i got there in the end ....briche or summat ?? !!! the woman shopkeeper was laughing at me i presumed at my pronunciation - or it could have been my hand movement trying to explain what i wanted

'Brickette', I think.

[tb]

: Thu Mar 12, 2009 10:28 pm  

briquette. But close

: Thu Mar 12, 2009 10:35 pm  

tb wrote:

briquette. But close

Phonetically spot on.

: Thu Mar 12, 2009 10:45 pm  

yeah thats it lol

: Sat Mar 14, 2009 4:37 pm  

so compare the food too english grounds food

: Sat Mar 14, 2009 4:45 pm  

Best food and drink i had in france was limoux vs wigan in the challenge cup probably 5 or 6 years ago

They had a farmers market in the car park at the ground and were selling champaign, baguettes, cheese, wine the lot and the weather was great aswell!

Yes you heard it right wiganers drink champaign at rugby matches