Where to buy building material in France

When we first arrived to start work, finding the best places to buy materials was tricky. Alex's father recommended a few and we often ended up following signs to random industrial sites. This has been slightly costly learning experience as prices vary hugely from store to store. Also, we quickly learnt that places we assumed would have a wide variety of choice didn't necessarily have the most obvious things.

Another frustrating aspect is that most of the websites for these places don't have online catalogues, which means if you are trying to do price comparisons you need to learn the French for what you are looking for and start picking up the phone. Often times you will get passed to someone actually on the floor of the shop and they are usually busy so just keep trying. Don't call to close to lunch time or closing time.

One good thing is that because of the onslaught of foreigners in the French property market, DIY and material stores are now pretty used to serving non-French speaking clients. I recently went to Leroy Merlin where they had a Welcome Pack for English speakers at the entrance of the store, which included a little French/English dictionary of common renovating terms. Their customer service staff also display a British flag on their name tags if they speak English. Not all stores put this much effort into appeasing their foreign customers but you'd be surprised how accommodating most places can be.

Suppliers

Big Mat
Online catalogue for specific jobs (roofing, tiling, etc...) but does not contain prices.

Brico Depot
By far the cheapest I've come across. It's got generic brands as well as the priciest ones we all know, like Black & Decker. Staff tend to know what they are talking about too! They also have a great catalogue.

Bricomarche
Good for smaller projects. They also stock some decorating items.

Colomat
Not the cheapest store out there. Pretty standard stock.

Leroy Merlin
They have one of the better websites, including prices and advice pages. And as mentioned above

Mr Bricoman
Very similar to Bricomarche.

Point P
Medium on the pricing range. Closer to Leroy Merlin than Brico Depot, but not bad.

Tout Faire Materiaux
Good website though no pricing. It looks like they are in the process of adding them.

Weldom
Once again, not the cheap but it depends on what you are buying. In terms of selection of stock, I would put them somewhere between Mr Bricolage and Leroy Merlin.

This list is not definitive and remember to look for local suppliers, not just the chains!