Unfamiliar Products in Supermarkets

Of course the brands and the products differ between France and South Africa. There is also a difference in the emphasis on and length of shelves for the different types of food. For instance many more wines, cheeses, chocolates and coffees but fewer juices, sweets and snacks. But also totally, quite surprising totally different products - we will start with two that are rather peculiar.

Purple chips, are not something I'm waiting for in South Africa with bated breath:

Image by Gros Chigy is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

These chips are still sold into the natural no artificial additives, because the purple colouring used is natural. Added to this, like many other chips in France, it is emphasized that the chips were fried in sunflower oil. The chips are sold on the basis of how great they will look as a snack at a special party!

The other item that amused was the toilet paper with the flushable centre roll.

Image by Gros Chigy is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

This seems rather unuseful in South Africa where recycling is much less developed. Also in France the shops offering organic chemicals to promote the functioning of Independent sewage disposal systems illustrates the lack of robust waterborne sewerage systems that South Africa has in many areas.

Having got over the inevitable settling in period, I hope to be offering more frequent blogs in the future.