Brico Dépôt

I think I’ve mentioned before that buying DIY materials in France is so different from the UK.

This week we needed to drive into an outside depot to buy some roofing materials. It’s all a bit daunting, especially as it’s not always possible to find out what they’ve got beforehand, or how much it will cost. Brian really prefers to be prepared.

A lot of the materials are completely different to what we were used to, so when we try to imagine how we’re going to do a job, it’s probably not how it will end up. So we need to be very flexible and open in our approach.

Another thing, which has caught us out in the past, is that they price everything in square metres, which can be tricky when calculating the true cost. This time though it was easier to understand.

With our choice made, we took what we needed from the stack, drove round to the counter at the exit, had it checked, and then paid for it.

There was one further little challenge. The three roof-ridge pieces were heavily scratched, so I suggested to Brian he could ask for a reduction. How hard could that be?

Impressively, he got a 50% reduction.

Now we just have to work out how to fit them.