Groceries: where to find a taste of home
Not every town has a dedicated “Russian shop”, but you won’t be left without buckwheat or tvorog. Three approaches that work:
- Ordinary supermarkets - sarrasin (buckwheat), kéfir, fromage blanc (close to tvorog) and crème fraîche épaisse (the stand-in for smetana, sold in every chain) are easy to find, and so are herring and rye bread.
- Eastern grocers - Turkish, Maghrebi and Balkan shops often stock the same things “our people” look for.
- Delivery across France - katucha.fr and lamaisonrusse.com, for example (slavmarket.fr only delivers within Paris and its suburbs); in the chat people chip in for group orders and trips to the nearest big city.
For specific shop addresses, see your city’s guide (where such shops actually exist) and the chat.
Some of the places the community is on friendly terms with have a page to themselves - what is worth buying, how to get there, what the hours really are: see Places for our people.
Doctors and health care in Russian
The universal method is Doctolib → language filter → Russe, plus the speciality and city you need. That’s how people find a GP (médecin traitant), a dentist, a gynaecologist, a paediatrician or a psychologist. How the sécu, médecin traitant and mutuelle work is covered in the Relocation section. We only publish doctors’ names with their consent.
Orthodox church
The South of France has parishes of various jurisdictions - the Moscow Patriarchate, ROCOR, Constantinople (the Archdiocese, rue Daru), and Romanian, Serbian and Greek ones. In the larger cities (Nice, Marseille) there are churches right in town; for smaller places, look up the nearest parish and the schedule of services in the city guide. The best known is St Nicholas Cathedral in Nice.
Children: Russian school and language
In several cities there are Russian weekend schools and cultural associations (in Nice and Toulouse, for example). Schedules and enrolment change, so check the current details in the city guide and the chat; there are online options too.
Documents: sworn translator and notary
For official paperwork you’ll need a traducteur assermenté (see the FAQ above). A notary (notaire) is required for property transactions and inheritance; have the apostille/legalisation put on documents from your country of origin before you move, if at all possible.