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If I had my way, I’d spend all my mornings strolling through the 6th Arrondissement, a warm croissant and café au lait in hand, and my afternoons sitting at historic Parisian cafes with a glass of wine and a great book. That’s the dream, but the reality is that on most days, I need to create a little bit of Paris at home to scratch the itch to book a flight.
Colleen and Antoine Dupont are more than familiar with the desire to experience France stateside. As professional tour guides in France, known online as Les Frenchies, they provide travel tips — with a focus on the best food and wine experiences — to people visiting the country. They live in Paris now, but for many years the couple called Florida home. A native Frenchman, Antoine moved to America in the 1990s and fell in love with the American-born Colleen. They married and raised their family in the States and moved to France in 2021.
Before relocating to France, Les Frenchies earned years of experience in seeking out the best French food you can find in the U.S., and a few of their favorite products might be more accessible than you think. Beloved bulk retailer Costco offers a variety of French staples that Colleen loves, and the Paris pro shared some suggestions for what to snag on your next grocery run.
French wines
Costco’s Kirkland Signature wines are known for delivering great quality at incredible prices. Although they’re sold under Costco’s private label, the wine is produced by wineries across the globe — so when you snag a bottle of the $15 Kirkland Signature Gigondas, a Grenache-Syrah-Mourvèdre red blend, you’re getting a wine made in the southern Rhône Valley in France.
“Since Costco is a huge buyer of wine and grapes for its own Kirkland [private] label, you can’t overlook its wine department,” Colleen tells Food and Wine. “The buyers carry a lot of weight with the French vineyards!” As a result, the superstore stocks some highly rated wines, including a 2019 Château Bouscassé Madiran, a full-bodied red from Gascony with notes of dark berry and a price tag of $15, and a 2019 Château Tronquoy Saint-Estèphe, a brightly acidic, medium-bodied red from Médoc with notes of blackberry and cassis, which rings in at $30.
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“Antoine and I are big fans of the Burgundy region,” Colleen adds. “We like light reds like a Pinot Noir or a Brouilly… But if you want a more complex Bordeaux or some French bubbles, they have that too.”
Costco carries famous French Champagne houses like Dom Perignon and Veuve Clicquot, but you can also snag the Kirkland Signature Champagne — which is indeed made in the Champagne region of France — for less than $25 or the Cave de Ribeauville Crémant d’Alsace for around $13. “We trust the Costco buyers, and so far it’s always a safe bet,” Collen emphasizes.
Croissants
Colleen is a fan of Costco’s baguettes, but her favorite item from the store’s bakery department is a different French classic. “I think that every time I’ve gone to Costco in the U.S. over the past decades, I bought its jumbo pack of croissants,” she recalls.
The French cuisine aficionado is far from alone; the flaky pastries are popular with other shoppers too. The croissants are made only with butter — as opposed to an inexpensive substitute like margarine — and are fresh-baked in Costco locations daily. The dough arrives frozen at warehouse locations, but it’s proofed and baked on-site. At around $8 for a dozen croissants, this bakery find is a steal.
“They are my favorite in the U.S. And it’s not just me. I know other French people who buy them in the U.S. as well,” Colleen recounts. The American expat also has an easy trick for stocking up on the croissants without sacrificing their quality. “Freeze them and heat them up in a super hot oven when you’re ready to eat,” she recommends. “That way they have a crispy outer shell and they get that yummy stretch of fluffy dough [inside].”
French cheeses
A cheese course is a staple part of French dining, and “any good French cheese plate calls for a few different types of cheese,” Colleen explains. “I can find all of those easily at Costco. For a well-rounded cheese plate, get a hard cheese (Gruyère), semi-soft cheese (Tomme de Savoie), something creamy (Saint-André triple crème), blue cheese (Saint Agur), and of course, brie (Kirkland Signature).”
These cheeses will round out the flavors and textures you need as part of a cheese course, and Costco’s offering for each one is actually worth spending your money on. Kirkland’s brie, a mild double-crème cheese, comes from Isigny Sainte-Mère, a cooperative of farmers in Normandy renowned for its brie, butter, and camembert. The store’s Emmi Le Gruyère comes from Switzerland and showcases the style’s signature sharp, lightly sweet, and nutty flavor.
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Three of these recommendations are harder-to-find products that may be difficult to locate at some grocery chains — but you can definitely snag them at Costco. Tomme de Savoie is a medium-firm cheese with a buttery texture from the French Alps. The velvety Saint-André, with a silky texture and a slightly more funky flavor than brie, also comes from Normandy, and Saint Agur from the Auvergne region has a milder flavor than many other blue cheeses.
As Colleen points out, “Did I mention that [Costco] has great wine and bread to go with that too?” It sounds like your next date night or appetizer spread might already be planned out.
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