Wine in supermarket

As little as a couple of euros. Splurge and pay 10 and you'll be impressed. Sigh.

My mouth is watering! You can eat pretty cheap with some cheese, wonderful french bread and a bottle of wine. A picnic in the gardens of Versaille sounds great. Or maybe they forbid it.

you cannot picnic in the Versailles Gardens but you can outside the gardens in the wider estate. The problem is carrying stuff into the chateau which you can't. And I don't think they allow you to check food. So if you want to picnic, perhaps do that first with a later time for entering the chateau.

hey hey mlw
we stayed in an apartment in annecy with a grocery store on first floor, bought our groceries and wine every night or every other before up the elevator. was surprised at the price, wine was a few euros, about 7-9 for white. friend also thot if more expensive much better, didn't happen. make sure you have a corkscrew packed in your checked baggage and carry with you. on spontaniety we would stop at park/garden with some appetizers, "cheap plastic/dixie cup" glasses and celebrate out fun times in paris with so many laughs and memories about some crazy times. enjoy the moment
aloha

Any park will do, if it's warm enough. I'm getting so anxious to go!

Fully agree with Kerouac2! Around 5-6€ is usually good, but sometimes less so; spend 8€ and you should avoid disappointment!

In Germany, I do not buy wine for myself that is more than 6-7€. A bottle intended as a gift is maybe 15€. I was shocked when I lived in the US about how expensive wine is there!

At a grocery store on Reu Cler I purchased a Beaujolais for two Euro.

There is a chain of wine shops called Nicolas, I believe, in Paris.
You'll see them everywhere.
I bought a bottle of rose last time I was in Paris, in Monoprix.
Had to pour it down the sink.
A wine shop can give you recommendations.

Did you book your accommodations in Paris and Venice?
Hope you will share what you found!

Spend more than 1 euro - I've had totally undrinkable wine at that price point - though it was cheaper than coke!

Does France do screw tops yet? Or do we need to carry a corkscrew?

Maybe the challenge will be to determine what you enjoy in a wine. French wines for the most part are based on a region, with a dominant grape, but also usually a mix of grapes, as opposed to varietal wines you get from the US and in other areas of Europe. So play around with the regions, I prefer the wines of the Cotes du Rhone, but as others said, hard to find a bad bottle if you stay in that 4 to 10 euro range.

We spend more than most of you: 8-12. Additionally, we buy a lot of wines from our region, with an occasional Loire or Rhone. We go to a local wine shop or our local Monoprix, which has a nice Chateauneuf du Pape rosé for 12 or 14 during summer.

The huge Monoprix chain combines food and wine sales with clothing, home hardware and cosmetics. It has several subsidiaries with smaller selections. None are "dollar store" discounters as we know in North America. As with everything, you get what you pay for. The Nicolas chain of wine shops are slightly up-market and can offer advice while Monoprix is simple off-the-shelf shopping.

https://www.monoprix.fr/
https://www.nicolas.com/

To add to kerouac2, the arrival of the Beaujolais Nouveau is hardly noticed in the south, unlike Paris.

Aside from a few hidden gems forgotten on bottom shelves, I have rarely found wine at Nicholas any better than supermarket wine and it's marginally more expensive. A neighborhood wine shop is my first choice, and then my neighborhood Monoprix where I stock up in order to run up a bill high enough to qualify for free home delivery.

Annually, we drive 3 hours to Tourcoing, just across the border in France where we stock up during the Foire aux Vins (Annual Autumn French Wine Sales). You can get some great buys on younger wines. We generally purchase 16-18 cases, filling up the back of our Renault... and then spend the night in Lille.

When we first heard of this annual event years ago, we were told that there were tastings, often a sommelier available to answer your questions, and great prices. We asked, "Which winery do you suggest?" Our friends laughed and said no, no... we're going to the grocery stores like Carrefour, Auchan, Monoprix, and so on. It's been a delightful weekend trek for all of us ever since. So yes, you can get some good wines at incredible prices in the local grocery stores.

kerouac2, it's sort of turned into a "wine weekend" for us. The grocery stores have different weeks that they each run their sales. So we work their websites to see on what weekend there is the most overlap ... and then schedule our trip accordingly. Many of the grocery stores publish a "catalog" (really more like a 20-40 page flyer) that you can download. In our group, we have folks who are red or white "experts" and they - using a program like Vivino (or equivalent) and the catalog - build a list of WHAT TO BUY! When we pull up at each grocery store, we know what we're looking for! Of course, much of the research time is spent with a glass of wine in hand.

We'll often purchase our loads on Saturday, then head to Lille... but on the way home (Sunday) we might stop again, just to get that special buy someone else grabbed. So it's a fun trip and we all have plenty of French wine (well, at least for a few months!).

mlw -

Two of my favorite meals in France were on park benches. The first time in Paris, we picked up a rotisserie chicken, potatoes, cheese, strawberries, bread, bottle of wine, ate in the Champ de Mars looking at Eiffel Tower. A couple of years later after having bought similar provisions at the Croix-Rousse market in Lyon, cherries instead of strawberries, Rosé from a market stall for 4 euros came with two small plastic cups. Heaven. Yes, you can eat economically and very well indeed. Enjoy!

I'll drink your portion, Amy.

I feel so bad, as I tend to buy from 8E to 20E or so because I have some preferred regions. But many decent bottles are in the 4 to 8E range, I agree. I have tried things below that range and it is definitely more miss than hit. Here in the South, at the larger supermarkets and discount shops you can find bins of 2E and 3E wine and good specials during the faire aux vins time. I've even had vin en vrac -- you bring or buy a container and fill it up! It's like country house wine and usually quite good.

I second Celeste! She has just described my absolutely favorite French meal ever: rotisserie chicken, potatoes, cheese (preferably Rockamador) and strawberries, cherries or grapes. We often add tomatoes and a baugette. That meal, or should I say meals, was only equaled by the most fabulous lunch and a wonderful restaurant in LaRoque Gagiac, featuring an exquisite duck breast. Unfortunately, we were there on what we now believe was our chef's last day! New owners, food is okay but not to go out of your way for. But it is truly hard to beat the offerings at an open-air market! Oh yes, as to the OP's original question: our favorite wines in France are usually from the Rhône Valley. I've never had a bottle I did not like and if you get one from Gigondas, it may transport you to heaven. A few years back I got one from the supermarket in Avignon. Didn't expect too much as it was, after all, from the supermarket. It was a little more pricey than the other Rhône wines, may be as much is €8. Wow! A superb wine. That said, it is hard to go wrong with a €5 or €6 bottle of French wine.

Interesting question with "decent" being the key word. "Decent" could mean sound (no negative qualites) or it could be dependent on the taste of the taster. Statistically:

https://www.statista.com/statistics/782340/still-wine-purchase-share-by-bottle-price-range/

Still wine purchasing patterns 2019, by bottle price range

Published by Eloise Trenda, Jul 5, 2021

This statistic shows a breakdown of still wine purchases in France in
2019, distributed by bottle price range. Still wine bottles priced
less than three euros represented 68 percent of the total still wine
purchases.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/782340/still-wine-purchase-share-by-bottle-price-range/

I myself almost never go to Nicolas...

I go to Nicolas for one reason. They're a reliable place to drop off used corks for recycling. Wines I buy at a supermarket or, on occasion, from a winery.

I am like Bets. I can't really buy anything under 8 euros and am more likely to spend 13-15 for just a regular bottle for myself.

I am sorry to be a snob but oh my gosh these bottles for 3 or 4 euros. . . Yikes.

My favorite is a colleague of mine (French) in her 60s who will often try to advise me on cheap wines to buy when we are having a work event among colleagues -- and she DOESN'T DRINK !!! I just say thanks but no thanks for this "counsel."