Taking food into France
We are travelling to France this year for the first time since Brexit and The Pandemic. We are travelling for a few months, we have done this since 1984 and used to like taking a fair bit of food with us. I have tried researching what I can take this year, but what I have read seems ambiguous. I understand the basics no fresh food or dairy products, but what about tinned food, dried food, bottled food, spices and herbs? I know people will say what are you worrying about they sell food in France, but we like to be well stocked when travelling. Also my wife enjoys cooking and would take lots of store cupboard type ingredients. Can anybody give me details for a website that can help with specific items? I have looked at the EU sites but they are so complicated and steeped in legal language. Surely there must be simple to understand but detailed information somewhere on the web, can somebody help me find it?!
JSGJ
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Take your first evening meal then go shopping.
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Can’t point you to specific web site besides eu site. You could try uk.gov sites as well. But essentially no meat or meat products inc. tinned meat. No dairy of any sort, inc. dried milk. There are some limits on fruit and veg as well. But I think that is fresh not canned. But you are ok with dried herbs for example.
There are several aspects of this. Firstly as we are a third country now we come under third country rules and in respect of foodstuffs it is all about food security for the eu now that we longer necessarily follow eu food rules. Secondly it is about checks on the eu side of the border. If you take “contraband” and it is discovered the most likely consequence is for it to be confiscated. There is first hand evidence on other forums of fridges being checked, although rarely.
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Good advice to follow uk.gov website. I am not sure why people are telling you to just go shopping, after you have explained your reasoning. We take basics like a wide range of spices and dried herbs, etc because I don't want to buy them all again - we take them in small containers, mostly mini jam jars, to save space. I am pretty sure that kind of thing is fine in terms of the new rules. Have a great trip.
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From all the anecdotal evidence on here, Facebook and other forums, it seems there are no reported incidents where people are checked, certainly going into France. Even if you were checked the worse that is likely to happen would be that the food would be confiscated, no fines or thrown into prison! One, of course, has to be sensible. If you ram your fridge/freezer full of bacon anyone checking could reasonably come to the conclusion that it was not for personal consumption and that might end differently? I think if there were incidences of people being checked and food confiscated that news would spread around the internet faster than someone saying they have been gassed on a Service Station! As with all risks you have to balance that against the likely consequences and make a decision.
David
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They do, lots of lovely things. I love buying fresh fish, vegetables, cheese, bread, local delicacies, wine, and so on but it's good to have basics with you to save buying them again. Maybe it depends on what kind of cooking you do when away. We take things that of course are available in France or Spain but there's no point in buying them there when I've got them at home - chilli flakes, turmeric, cumin seeds, oregano, coriander seeds, whatever - it just makes sense to take some things with you.
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Sorry HD I like Marmite OH does not but have 2 large jars in the cupboard.
Agree with folk yes we do have in food here as we went shopping yesterday and no shortages of fruit and vegetables been the same all winter.
We usually take basics with us when we go to UK. and used to do the same when we used to come to France before we moved here.
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rules apply to all the prohibited food. There is no exception for personal consumption. Same rules for pets, except you can take some pet food with a vet certificate.
You decide whether to obey the rules or not. Personally I would take contents of home fridge (having run it down) plus the stuff we normally have in the van anyway eg herbs & spices, tubs of pasta, rice etc.
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You have me confused. We have taken trailer tents and caravans to France since 1999. No matter what the political climate we have never felt as if we were on the receiving end of anything other than a polite and friendly welcome.
Colin
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Have you not been watching the news, EM? it's not aimed at tourists but the very nature of the rioting means there are places best avoided by a country mile.
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Hands up to not following the news in as much detail as I could, but it's generally fairly depressing stuff. If we are honest the French like to strike and riot about pretty much anything, so it's hard to know how to take them seriously. I'm a glass half full, not half empty type of person so I'm always looking for the good. If I crossed the channel with a full tank I would be well south of the Loire before I need to re-fill. What a terrible thing it would be to be for a retired person such as myself to be stuck in France late summer, with food and wine in abundance just a short cycle ride from my favourite site. I can think of far worse things in life.
Colin
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That was certainly a problem for us last October, when there were refinery strikes. We were on our way home and staying at Neufchatel-en-Bray when there were real problems. Nothing to be had at any of the fuel stations nearby, and not wishing to use more fuel driving round, we tried again next day; hit lucky at LeClerc up the road, but were limited to 50 Euros. Drove further north and found all stations without fuel until the A16, and miraculously they'd just had a delivery, so topped up again, phew!
I agree Steve, we've holidayed in France for decades, and have met some really friendly French people, but when they strike, you know about it, especially when it concerns fuel of course.
We're booked in May, so will have to wait and see how things are then.
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What a terrible thing it would be to be for a retired person such as myself to be stuck in France late summer, with food and wine in abundance just a short cycle ride from my favourite site. I can think of far worse things in life.
Our whole reason for going is to tour, ending up in Provence to visit family. Therefore, it would defeat the whole reason for the visit however nice the weather or location we were stuck at.
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"I can think of far worse things in life"
Like being caught up in a riot, for instance? 🤷🏻♂️
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"It's food, Jim, but not as we know it"
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OK, I've over simplifying things and I'll put neck out, but:-
Folk do not generally happen across a riot and get caught up in one. They are usually known about, especially the place, and as such you do not go near them.
I'm 62, originally from Merseyside, and of the age when things kicked off badly in Merseyside whilst I was away at university. As it was coming to the end of term the riots in Liverpool were all over the tv, in the press etc. I asked my mum what it was like and she said terrible, frightening etc. Dad then came on the phone and put a better perspective on it. They were 15 miles away in an area known for unrest. If you wanted to get into trouble you went there, but normal people did not.
Hopefully I will not see any riots on the French campsites in Sept.
Colin
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Last October 75% of the countries service stations had no diesel and those that had were rationing how much you could have.
if you are low on diesel and cant find a filling station then you are "involved" , we changed our ferry crossing to Portsmouth - Santander after being advised by 2 sites we were planning to stop over on our way thru France that the area had no diesel. I guess if you are a Caravanner you can leave the caravan on site and explore some of the more remote areas in search of diesel, but very risky.
p.s. as for food, never had a problem April 22, even took the dogs favourite foods dried and tinned
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Nothing changes over there!
In Sepember 2000 we were on a campsite near Arles when the French did all that same stuff. There was no fuel to be had but we had food and wine and were sitting it out when we got a phone call to say that mother had been taken to hospital - and with no fuel there was no way of us driving back.
But being a military base the airport at Nimes was still open and RyanAir was flying in once a day, so we booked the last two seats to Stansted. The site owner said leave the caravan with me, and told us that although the motorway was blocked the road through Arles town and over the Trinquetaille bridge was still open. So we parked the car on the top floor of the airport multi storey - under a light and within range of CCTV - and went home.
And a fortnight later we went back to pour money into the airport car park machine and collect our belongings.
That’s the year the Club told us afterwards that they didn’t insure unattended caravans left overseas so we changed the insurance in case it ever happened again.
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, that’s only good for undersealing cars 
