Surprise find in French supermarket

[RVFRick]

Last week I was in Versailles France for work. I enjoyed my time there except for the brutal jet lag. Anyways, on one of the days I stepped out to a local supermarket to grab some lunch. I always make a point to visit a grocery store when traveling abroad. I like exploring each aisle checking out all the different products, packaging and graphic design, selection, unusual flavors, etc. It gives insight into other cultures. Chocolate and cheese heaven for sure.

In the magazine section of the store I was :wtf to see the huge selection of moto magazines. I counted no less than 28 titles and this was in a supermarket. Imagine how many more a bookstore would stock.

During Uber rides it was obvious that moto and scooter culture is big over there. In the freezing cold and rain I saw an endless stream of smooth and high speed lane splitters on the traffic jammed highways. Viva la France! :mm4l

Edit: added photos

 

[Marcoose]

Reading used to be huge in France. Perhaps still is. I still read a lot, at least a book a month, often 1-2 books simultaneously. It doesn’t surprise me you’ve found so many magazines.

Last week was particularly rough in France with the public transport strikes and the rain and the cold. Yikes. I was thinking of Versailles just yesterday. Had a girlfriend there.

 

[dittoalex]

Broke European kids have caught up in economic advantage to Americans. They can afford motorcycles now. European Motorcycles Market, during 2019, is hitting the best year in this decade.

 

[KooLaid]

American kids are too worried about the environmental impact of a ICE powered moto.

 

[gixxerjeff]

Reminds me of the Safeway near my house in the late 80's, early 90's. (sniff)

 

[gixxerjeff]

American kids don't care about motorcycles anymore.

FTFY

 

[RVFRick]

European Motorcycles Market, during 2019, is hitting the best year in this decade.[/URL]

Cool link. MCD is a pretty cool resource.

American kids are too worried about the environmental impact of a ICE powered moto.

Europeans are also concerned about ICE. The hour+ long trips putting along the highways were filled with diesel odors so strong that I commented to the driver. He said he was going to buy a Tesla X next year. Damn, if taxi drivers can afford a $100k Tesla gas prices must be insane. :wtf
Electric vehicles make sense in urban areas and ebikes and scooters are getting a huge boost in Europe https://motorcyclesdata.com/2019/09/19/european-electric-scooter-and-motorcycles-market/

 

[tgrrdr]

It's been several years since I've been in Germany but I noticed they also had many more (and better) motorcycle magazines than we have.

 

[WorldSBK]

A lot of French folks still use motorcycles as their daily means of transportation. See picture in the link below :

https://www.latribune.fr/opinions/tribunes/le-peripherique-parisien-des-nuisances-mais-aussi-des-benefices-819938.html

In the Bay Area, I can count on one hand the number of motorcycles i run into on 101 (San Jose area) during commute time.

 

[anytwowilldo]

Just got back from Spain and France. It blew me away how many scooters and motos are on the road. It was not uncommon to have 30 parked next to each other on one side of the street and the same on the other. The moto culture is strong there and I bet the mags are great.

 

[budman]

Last week I was in Versailles France for work. I enjoyed my time there except for the brutal jet lag. Anyways, on one of the days I stepped out to a local supermarket to grab some lunch. I always make a point to visit a grocery store when traveling abroad. I like exploring each aisle checking out all the different products, packaging and graphic design, selection, unusual flavors, etc. It gives insight into other cultures. Chocolate and cheese heaven for sure.

In the magazine section of the store I was :wtf to see the huge selection of moto magazines. I counted no less than 28 titles and this was in a supermarket. Imagine how many more a bookstore would stock.

During Uber rides it was obvious that moto and scooter culture is big over there. In the freezing cold and rain I saw an endless stream of smooth and high speed lane splitters on the traffic jammed highways. Viva la France! :mm4l

Edit: added photos

Cool!...

I totally remember going into the drug stores as a kid and looking at which moto magazines I could afford from the large selection.

Motocross Action was a must. Dirt Bike usually as well.
The street stuff was only if I had gas money left over from riding..! :ride

 

[KooLaid]

Cool link. MCD is a pretty cool resource.


Europeans are also concerned about ICE. The hour+ long trips putting along the highways were filled with diesel odors so strong that I commented to the driver. He said he was going to buy a Tesla X next year. Damn, if taxi drivers can afford a $100k Tesla gas prices must be insane. :wtf
Electric vehicles make sense in urban areas and ebikes and scooters are getting a huge boost in Europe https://motorcyclesdata.com/2019/09/19/european-electric-scooter-and-motorcycles-market/

The EU must not be making much overall advances on reducing greenhouse gases it seems even though fuel is EXTREMELY expensive there.

 

[RVFRick]

Cool!...

I totally remember going into the drug stores as a kid and looking at which moto magazines I could afford from the large selection.

Motocross Action was a must. Dirt Bike usually as well.
The street stuff was only if I had gas money left over from riding..! :ride

I also grew up browsing bookstores and drugstore magazine racks way before motos were of interest. Comic were my thing. $2-3 could buy me a nice bundle of $.25-.50 comicbooks and hours of dreaming. Nostalgia flipping pages, smell of fresh ink, etc. Then the prices went through the roof to like $2-3 each to whatever they are now $5-6? I dont know, not a fan anymore.
I like reading current Cycle magazine but $10 an issue is too rich (I'm cheap) for the minimal content (though Kevin Cameron is da best!). So I would catch up at library or my dentist's office. Come to think of it, my dentist has a great selection of mags that I trully look forward to visiting. While she works on daughter's teeth I'm scrabling to devour everything I can cram into an hour before its my turn. In fact just last visit I asked her to save Car and Driver, R&T, Racecar Engineering and Cycle. Hopefully, next visit I'll get a lovely carepackage of reading material and clean teeth! :teeth

p.s. the mags in France were reasonably priced that I almost bought a few. Cracking them open I came to my senses and realized my French ain't good enough.

 

[budman]

Yeah... no translate tab. :laughing

 

[cg_ops]

I don't think it's that US kids don't have an interest in motorcycles. A huge part is that parents are so ignorant about bikes or are simply so anti-motorcycle that it'a not an option for them. The vast majority of my childhood friends LOVED bikes and we all wanted one. On my street there were 21 kids within 4 years of my age. I know at least 15 of us wanted one because of the one family that ALL rode dirtbikes. Every other family, mine included, wouldn't even let us ride on the back.... given the attitude of the general population when lane splitting is brought up, I can't imagine the situation has gotten better for kids to dip a toe into the shallow end of the sport.

 

[RVFRick]

Lazy Sunday with Jessica. Popped into library and as luck would have it, annual purge of old magazines. We are supposed to be purging our own home of unnecessary clutter but Cycle World gets a pass. Where else can you get this much entertainment for a dollar arty