Quebec, the French Language, and Quebecois Identity

[New Brisavoine]

Originally Posted by mousquet

Making some little buzz up to France.

Most French people don't even know what Walmart is.

Originally Posted by mousquet

In Switzerland, they have 4 official languages and it's no problem to them at all.

Yeah, but extremely few Francophones live in the German-speaking part, and extremely few Germanophones live in the French-speaking part. The only place where both language communities live side by side is Bienne/Biel, and there have been some linguistic tensions in stores in the city, but noting as bad as in Québec of course (probably because there is no history of forced conquest and one community dominating the other one, and Bienne is much smaller than a large metro area like Montréal with tens of thousands of Anglophones).

Interestingly, Bienne is currently in the process of becoming Francophone-majority (it was until now Germanophone-majority, and will be Francophone-majority before 2030, if not already the case), and this has generated no controversy in Germanophone Switzerland. The same thing in Flanders would lead to civil war.

PS: Video showing people protesting against German-only signage in the stores of Bienne.

• Video Link

[mousquet]

Originally Posted by New Brisavoine

Most French people don't even know what Walmart is.

Bah, who cares? I guess most know it's something like Carrefour, Auchan and the likes over here, due to social media.

Besides, you should not underestimate the French taste for traveling on their vacations.
Many of us traveled through the US as tourists.

[ToxiK]

Originally Posted by mousquet

In Switzerland, they have 4 official languages and it's no problem to them at all.
Guess not every people is as wise or clever as the Swiss, lol.

None of their languages is English, that makes a difference. Also, none of their 4 languages is massively dominating the rest of the continent.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

In order to post it on social media to draw attention to himself. In reality very few, if any, Canadians would object if a Quebecker in Quebec chose not to speak English and went to get someone else to help. It's pretty normal.

Few, if any???? Really?

[New Brisavoine]

Originally Posted by mousquet

Many of us traveled through the US as tourists.

You ever shopped at Walmart? I LIVED in the US (not just traveled there), and I never shopped at Walmart. I'm not even aware that there was one in my area (I think there wasn't).

[mousquet]

Originally Posted by New Brisavoine

You ever shopped at Walmart?

No. There is a very wide range of grocery stores over there, many more or less independent or local to particular states, I assume.

You don't need Walmart to survive America. Nevertheless, it is definitely a well known chain of this kind.
Don't tell me you never carrefoured or auchaned in France. Even the rich went there at least once, just out of curiosity, lol.
It's just about the same.

[New Brisavoine]

Walmart would be more like Lidl. Low quality stuff. I would never shop there.

In California I would shop at Trader's Joe or Safeway, and also a daily farmer's market in a large shopping center in the Silicon Valley that you wouldn't know, where they had excellent fresh local products, almost like in France. If it had been closer I would have shopped at Whole Foods Market which is higher quality than Safeway, but I couldn't be arsed to drive the longer distance, so it was Safeway for large grocery buying, and the other ones for smaller daily stuff. There was also a mom and pop épicerie near Stanford University where I bought my bread and a few other fresh stuff.

Walmart... seriously!

[mousquet]

^ You may be a little harsh.
Let's say Walmart might be Leclerc with an assault rifle department and a whole drugstore/pharmacy, lol.
But then again, I never tried it.

[New Brisavoine]

Leclerc has some fishmongers serving large varieties of fresh fish, some charcuterie stand with again large variety, some cheese stand with large variety, butcher stand with large variety of meet and poultry, in the provinces lots of regional food (and very good quality), etc. I very much doubt Warlmart has that. All they'll have will be generic US junk food. I'm not even sure you could find real butter in a Walmart for instance (even at Safeway it was hard to find real butter... they had something called "sweet cream" with the drawing of a female Peau Rouge on it, but that's no real butter), the thing we take for absolutely granted in any French supermarket.

There, I've found it:



Or just take something as mundane and ubiquitous in France as "pâte feuilletée" (puff pastry). Any French supermarket sells it, but Safeway didn't sell it, you could find it only at Whole Foods Market (and just one brand of frozen (and very expensive) puff pastry, when any French supermarket has at least 3 different brands of fresh (not frozen) puff pastry costing less than 5 euros). So forget about Walmart.

[mousquet]

Originally Posted by New Brisavoine

Leclerc has some fishmongers serving large varieties of fresh fish, some charcuterie stand with again large variety, some cheese stand with large variety, butcher stand with large variety of meet and poultry, in the provinces lots of regional food (and very good quality), etc.

Right. I noticed Leclerc had fine local products across the country, in other regions.
In fact, people in the provinces are kinda spoiled in that matter, because here in Paris, we don't often get the same local products as those they do, especially from large grocery chains.
In Paris, managers of grocery stores who go to Rungis every morning often have quality fresh stuff from all over the country. But they're almost always independent and slightly pricier, cause they work harder every day.

Local products in the regions and those getting to Rungis are much better than frozen or processed food, huh.
That's no secret. Rungis is by far the biggest supplier of quality restaurants in Paris.

[New Brisavoine]

Yup. Those are pictures from (not even particularly large) fishmonger stands at two different Leclerc in the provinces. You can always dream of such an abundance of fresh fish in US supermarkets!! Most US supermarkets don't even have a fishmonger stand (they only have prepacked fish), and Walmart certainly doesn't.





Likewise, the butcher stand in a Leclerc. You would not see that in a US supermarket, such abundance and variety of different fresh meat. Most of the meat is prepacked in US supermarkets, and they have little variety (for example, they never have veal, never have rabbit, never have pintade (guinea fowl), also forget about quails, duck, lamb liver, rognons (kidneys), and of course the delicious 'ris de veau', which is probably impossible to find in the entire North America).



But for good regional products, the best is always the 'traiteur' (delicatessen) stand. This is where Paris sucks big time. But it's worse in the US where that simply doesn't exist at all in their supermarkets.





PS: For the non-French forumers here, these are middle-class supermarkets in the pictures here, not expensive supermarkets like Whole Foods Market.

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Few, if any???? Really?

I'd say a small (and in any event irrelevant) minority.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by New Brisavoine

Or just take something as mundane and ubiquitous in France as "pâte feuilletée" (puff pastry). Any French supermarket sells it, but Safeway didn't sell it, you could find it only at Whole Foods Market (and just one brand of frozen (and very expensive) puff pastry, when any French supermarket has at least 3 different brands of fresh (not frozen) puff pastry costing less than 5 euros). So forget about Walmart.

You mean like this?

https://voila.ca/search?q=p%C3%A2te%20feuillet%C3%A9e

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by New Brisavoine

Yup. Those are pictures from (not even particularly large) fishmonger stands at two different Leclerc in the provinces. You can always dream of such an abundance of fresh fish in US supermarkets!! Most US supermarkets don't even have a fishmonger stand (they only have prepacked fish), and Walmart certainly doesn't.





Likewise, the butcher stand in a Leclerc. You would not see that in a US supermarket, such abundance and variety of different fresh meat. Most of the meat is prepacked in US supermarkets, and they have little variety (for example, they never have veal, never have rabbit, never have pintade (guinea fowl), also forget about quails, duck, lamb liver, rognons (kidneys), and of course the delicious 'ris de veau', which is probably impossible to find in the entire North America).



But for good regional products, the best is always the 'traiteur' (delicatessen) stand. This is where Paris sucks big time. But it's worse in the US where that simply doesn't exist at all in their supermarkets.





PS: For the non-French forumers here, these are middle-class supermarkets in the pictures here, not expensive supermarkets like Whole Foods Market.

Wegmans, which is a regional chain in the NE US based in Rochester NY, looks as good or better than that. They aren't high end like Whole Foods but definitely upper middle class. (Wegmans is not an hypermarché like Carrefour.) But they only have 100 stores in a half dozen states in one region of the country. Wegmans is said to be the best supermarket chain in the US.

This is what the middle class supermarkets near me look like:

https://www.google.com/search?q=march%C3...ATOgB-QM&sclient=img&safe=active&ssui=on

https://www.google.com/search?q=iga+extr...4yoAfFPA&sclient=img&safe=active&ssui=on

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by New Brisavoine

Most French people don't even know what Walmart is.


Yeah, but extremely few Francophones live in the German-speaking part, and extremely few Germanophones live in the French-speaking part. The only place where both language communities live side by side is Bienne/Biel, and there have been some linguistic tensions in stores in the city, but noting as bad as in Québec of course (probably because there is no history of forced conquest and one community dominating the other one, and Bienne is much smaller than a large metro area like Montréal with tens of thousands of Anglophones).

Interestingly, Bienne is currently in the process of becoming Francophone-majority (it was until now Germanophone-majority, and will be Francophone-majority before 2030, if not already the case), and this has generated no controversy in Germanophone Switzerland. The same thing in Flanders would lead to civil war.

PS: Video showing people protesting against German-only signage in the stores of Bienne.

• Video Link

Interestingly enough, the guy in the video references Bill 101 in Quebec when talking about the situation in his Swiss city.

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by Acajack

You mean like this?

https://voila.ca/search?q=p%C3%A2te%20feuillet%C3%A9e

I assume he meant the raw pastry, not baked items. You'd definitely find it in any Canadian supermarket.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

I assume he meant the raw pastry, not baked items. You'd definitely find it in any Canadian supermarket.

I think you're right. I misread.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by New Brisavoine

. I'm not even sure you could find real butter in a Walmart for instance (even at Safeway it was hard to find real butter... they had something called "sweet cream" with the drawing of a female Peau Rouge on it, but that's no real butter), the thing we take for absolutely granted in any French supermarket.
.

I've never seen "sweet cream" here (maybe it does exist) but bakers here complain that the butter even in Quebec isn't "real butter" and many get their butter imported from France.

I believe there are Canadian regulations applying to its composition that make it way less rich than real butter from France (even if it is labelle "beurre - butter" here, and not "sweet cream".

[niwell]

The No Frills supermarket near me actually has a butcher and fish counter in addition to pre-packaged sections. Both are operated by separate companies within the store space. Interesting because it's a discount chain with wildly varying quality of stores - this one is jokingly referred to as "Some Frills" due to a pretty impressive array of goods.

This is in addition to a number of butcher shops and a good fishmonger nearby.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by niwell

The No Frills supermarket near me actually has a butcher and fish counter in addition to pre-packaged sections. Both are operated by separate companies within the store space. Interesting because it's a discount chain with wildly varying quality of stores - this one is jokingly referred to as "Some Frills" due to a pretty impressive array of goods.

This is in addition to a number of butcher shops and a good fishmonger nearby.

The Quebec equivalents to No Frills, Super C and Maxi, are more like what New Brisavoine described: most fish is just packaged, the deli and butcher sections are tiny to non-existent, baked goods are generally industrial mass-produced.

But these are the cheap discount chains.

But the middle-class grocery chains (IGA, Métro, Adonis, Provigo) are a lot nicer and have full sections for the above specialties.

The biggest "hypermarché"-style chain we have is Costco. It's decent but in terms of high-end food it's not like the French hypermarchés. They don't stock 600 types of cheese at Costco.