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My 2013 French Shopping – What I Brought Back to Canada

Canada Border Agency officers always seem surprised when I say I don’t have any alcohol to declare, and they hardly believe me when I claim my backpack isn’t full of French food—yet it’s true. I don’t drink and I really wouldn’t know how to pick a nice bottle of wine for my friends (sorry, friends!) plus carrying glass bottles through airport security is a pain. And I don’t like to bring food back—I enjoy it while in France but my routine and taste buds change once in Canada.

But I still bring back a few things every time I visit my home country, especially cosmetics.

This time, I splurge on Nuxe products. This is a brand I love and while I can find it in Canada, their line of products is more expensive on this side of the Atlantic Ocean. I bought the Crème fraîche de beauté (ahem, three tubes of it), a cleanser and eye cream. And I got a bunch of samples to go with it, merci beaucoup.

I also bought two basics for my pharmacy: Biafine (a “gentle” medication to treat burns, wounds and irritations—works great on a sunburn for instance) and Arnica cream gel made from Arnica montana whole plant and roots to treat bruises and little booboos.

Adding to the basket a dermatological face soap and a cream for diaper rash a friend of my mum swears by. I’ll try it!

I also bought soap bars, savon de Marseille—olive oil-based soap have been crafted since the Middle Ages in the South of France (seriously, I sound like I’m pitching the product for a US commercial!). They are cheap and smell great, plus they don’t leave my skin dry. I used to love liquid soap but I gave it up a few years ago because I found my skin didn’t like it so much.

What else? A few magnets I picked up at the “Deux euro” store—I have a lot of pictures on the fridge and I am always looking for fun magnets.

For our kitchen, I bought two tiny spice jars with their wooden spoon (I use herbes de provence and oregano a lot) and a nice little metal tray with vintage LU cookies and chocolate ads, if I ever feel nostalgic.

Do you know any of these products? Anything specific you like to bring back from “home” when you travel?

Mark "Helps" With Unpacking
Mark “Helps” With Unpacking
Nuxe Products
Nuxe Products
Pharmacy Basics
Pharmacy Basics
Soap Bars
Soap Bars
Face Soap and Cream
Face Soap and Cream
Small Tray with Vintage Ads
Small Tray with Vintage Ads
Spice Jars
Spice Jars
Magnets
Magnets
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Zhu

French woman in English Canada.

Exploring the world with my camera since 1999, translating sentences for a living, writing stories that may or may not get attention.

Firm believer that nobody is normal... and it’s better this way.

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