What I Bought in Paris: Cheap, Easy-to-Carry Supermarket Souvenirs & Little French Gifts

One of my favourite parts of travelling is bringing home the little things that remind me of the place – and Paris turned out to be particularly good for this.

Of course I bought fridge magnets and bookmarks! But I also wanted small, useful, inexpensive things that I could actually fit into my luggage. And some of the best finds came from ordinary French supermarkets.

Monoprix and Carrefour, are in particular, worth wandering through even if you aren’t technically there to grocery shop. I ended up visiting one or two every single day to get some affordable meals, chilled juice (I arrived there in the middle of a heatwave!). It has become a popular stop for visitors looking for affordable French gifts, with everything from food and biscuits to soaps, beauty products and little homewares. (Time Out Worldwide)

Also, one important thing to note – when you’re shopping for souvenirs in Paris, you don’t necessarily have to think Parisian.

Paris is Paris, but Paris is also in France.

Until I get around to travelling through the rest of France (and I absolutely intend to) Paris is going to be my place to shop for French things from all over the country. Provence may be several hours away, but a little piece of Provence can quite happily make its way home in my Paris suitcase.

So my Paris shopping list ended up being a mixture of very Parisian things and things that simply felt French: lavender from Provence, Marseille soap, French supermarket goodies, Bonne Maman jams, coffee and even a can of ratatouille.

Here is what I actually brought home from Paris – and a few things I had on my list but eventually skipped.

My Paris Supermarket Souvenirs

Bonne Maman mini jam jars

These were probably my favourite supermarket purchase.

I picked up a little collection of Bonne Maman mini jars, each with those instantly recognisable red-and-white checked lids. They are small enough to make really easy gifts, and they look so much prettier than most supermarket food packaging.

Bonne Maman is also one of those French brands that feels like a souvenir without actually being a souvenir.

You can find the larger jars of jam everywhere, but I particularly liked the little ones because they are perfect for gifting – and because I could buy several different flavours without filling half my suitcase with jam.

If you’re looking for cheap French food gifts from Paris, this is exactly the sort of thing I mean.

And there are plenty of other Bonne Maman products I had on my list but didn’t end up buying: madeleines, mini tartelettes, galettes/butter biscuits, and salted-butter caramel were all recommendations I had made before the trip. Bonne Maman madeleines and biscuits are particularly easy to find in French supermarkets. (Sortiraparis)

Honestly, if I had known how much I would enjoy these little jars, I probably would have bought more.

French coffee – in a very French-looking tin

I am a coffee lover and I love to try coffees from all over the world be it the famous Costa Rican coffee brands or Emirati coffee from Dubai. The gold Malongo Suprême d’Arabica tin has that old-fashioned French grocery-store feel that makes it much more interesting as a souvenir than a generic packet of coffee.

And unlike many Paris souvenirs, it is something that actually gets used. In fact I am already at the bottom of the tin and going to miss it very much.

Malongo is a French coffee roaster that dates back to 1934, when it began in Nice, and it is now one of the established names in French coffee. The company has a particularly strong presence in French supermarkets, so this isn’t just a touristy “French-looking” coffee picked up for the sake of the packaging.

The particular one I picked up, Sûprêmo d’Arabica, is one of Malongo’s more premium blends. It is made from selected Arabicas and is described by the company as a relatively mild coffee, with fine, slightly fruity notes. It is also roasted and packaged in France.

A little Ratatouille souvenir

And then there was the can of ratatouille – which might look like a completely ordinary supermarket purchase, but it actually had a little family story behind it.

Ratatouille is one of my kids’ favourite movies, so when I spotted this can of Ratatouille à la Provençale at Monoprix, I immediately thought it would be fun to bring it home from France.

Not just as a souvenir, but as something we could actually open and enjoy together – a little Ratatouille movie-night moment, except this time the ratatouille had actually come home from France.

It made me smile that something as simple as a supermarket tin could become a much more personal souvenir because of the connection to a movie we’ve all enjoyed together.

And, of course, it helped that it was vegetarian, inexpensive and easy to pack. Exactly the kind of souvenir I was looking for.

Herbs de Provence

I also brought home packets of Herbes de Provence and a potato herb mix.

I love checking out all these supermarket aisles with little things like these that locals actually use.

They are tiny, inexpensive and useful and I couldn’t wait to go back and use them in my recipes – and every time I use the herbs, there is a little reminder that they came home from France.

French herbs and spice blends are also specifically recommended as practical food souvenirs because they are lightweight and easy to pack. (O’Bon Paris)

If you are doing a Paris supermarket shopping haul, don’t overlook the little spice and herb shelves.

Lavender from Provence and Marseille soap

My FAVOURITE STOP!!

I knew I wanted to bring back Dried Lavender from Provence and Marseille soaps from France.

And I found both in the the cutest little shop on the Champs-Élysées, tucked inside one of the arcades. I was walking down Champs Elysses after visiting the Arc de Triomphe and wandered inside this arcade. The store and the prices were perfect and I made my purchases right away. The store had affordably prices Lavender in organza bags and so many options to choose from, for the soaps.

Savon de Marseille is a traditional French soap associated with Marseille and Provence, and French supermarkets and shops carry plenty of inexpensive French soap options. They have single soaps in so many fragrances, packs of 4 or 5, soaps ready to gift in pretty tins, bath sets and more. And you can always create your own gift set with your chosen soaps.

 

I bought both the lavender soap and the pretty pink Huile d’Olive soap, and I think French soap is one of the easiest souvenirs to recommend to anyone who wants something small and useful.

As for the lavender bags, I bought several – for myself, my mom, all of my girlfriends, my aunts.

They are perfect for drawers, wardrobes and linen cupboards, and they also make lovely little gifts without looking like you bought something specifically from a tourist souvenir shop.

They were not only affordable, but can be stuffed in any nook and cranny in the suitcase without any damage.

The things I almost bought

There were quite a few things on my Paris shopping list that I either didn’t find, ran out of luggage space for, or simply decided I didn’t need.

French butter

I had specifically wanted to bring back French salted butter – beurre demi-sel.

French butter is one of those things that sounds ridiculously ordinary until you taste really good French butter. Bordier and Échiré were among the names I’d looked at, and specialty food shops such as La Grande Épicerie (in le Bon Marche) are places where you can find high-end French butter.

But I skipped it. Because like I mentioned earlier, it was really hot in Paris when I was visiting. And you need to get the butter on the last day, get it vacuum packed and store it safely. I was really unsure of how the butter would hold even until I reached the airport and didn’t want it messing my clothes.

So: French butter – next time.

More Bonne Maman

This was another next time.

I had wanted to pick up:

• Bonne Maman madeleines
• Butter biscuits and galettes
• Mini tartelettes
• Fig or mirabelle jam
• Salted-butter caramel

These are all the sort of easy French supermarket gifts that make sense when you’re trying to shop cheaply. They are small, recognisably French and generally much easier to pack than fragile souvenirs.

The salted-butter caramel was especially tempting but I just ran out of room. Solo travel has it’s downside 🙁

And then there were the decidedly less-budget souvenirs…

Not everything on my Paris shopping list was from “les supermarches”.

I also considered a couple of much more Paris purchases.

A personalised Guerlain lipstick

I had the option of getting a personalised Guerlain lipstick.

This was one of those purchases that would have made a lovely Paris memory, because the product itself is beautiful and the personalisation makes it feel like something you bought there, rather than something you could have ordered online.

But I skipped it. Do give it a try if you are into it.

I was trying to keep my Paris shopping relatively sensible, and there are only so many luxury beauty purchases one can justify after a long trip!

An embossed Longchamp bag

The other thing I seriously considered was an embossed/personalised Longchamp bag.

Again, it would have been a lovely souvenir – practical, distinctly French and personalised.

But I decided against it. Perhaps I’m just more easily persuaded by a €3 jar of Bonne Maman jam than a designer purchase.

The souvenir I actually love the most: a book from Shakespeare and Company

There was one thing I definitely wanted to bring home from Paris that wasn’t food, soap or lavender.

A book from Shakespeare and Company.

I know the place has become very touristy but it still remains a sort of a pilgrimage for book lovers which I consider myself to be. So, I stood in the line for 30 minutes, finally visited the store and bought a book and had it stamped at the bookstore. Click on the link above to know which book I chose and why. It now holds a place of pride on my bookshelf and I love showing it off to my bookish friends.

And that little stamp makes such a difference. It turns an ordinary book into a souvenir of a particular place and a particular trip. Shakespeare and Company is famous for its English-language bookstore beside Notre-Dame, and having a book stamped there is a lovely, very personal Paris keepsake.

In fact, it is not just die-hard booklovers who come here to buy a book and get it stamped. When I was browsing their reading room above (free, and with fans to beat the summer heat) I met some other travelers who were talking about how they had just come from Longchamp after getting their embossed bag and were off to Guerlain after getting their Shakespeare and Co stamped books. So, it has apparently become a thing to be checked off a list for many people!

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More cheap Paris souvenirs worth looking for

If you’re planning your own Paris shopping list and want to keep things inexpensive and easy to carry, supermarkets are a surprisingly good place to start.

Some of the things I would look for are:

Food & drink

• Bonne Maman jams
• Madeleines
• French butter biscuits
• Galettes and sablés
• Salted-butter caramel
• French chocolates
• Tea
• Coffee
• French mustard
• Herbs de Provence
• Honey
• Small tins of Provençal vegetables
• Parisian kitchen/food essentials gift sets (particularly from the store of the top floor of Galaries Lafayette)

Bath & beauty

• Savon de Marseille
• French lavender soap
• Le Petit Marseillais products
• Small French hand creams
• Scented soaps

Small non-food gifts

• Lavender sachets
• French tea towels
• Pretty notebooks
• Paris-themed tote bags
• Small kitchen accessories
• Magnets and little stationery items

French supermarkets such as Monoprix and Carrefour are particularly useful because you can pick up several different kinds of gifts in one stop, rather than spending your holiday searching for souvenir shops. (Baker Street Society)