We were in a B&Q type store in Paris and saw these in the household cleaning products section
Terre de sommieres is Fullers Earth - a type of clay with all sorts of cleansing properties. [see Malachi 3;12 in the Bible]
Such interesting names, in comparison to Flash, Vanish, Method and Mr Muscle. And such gloriously retro labels.
I'm not sure I'd want this one on the shelf though - not with grandchildren learning to read
Maybe the French are more relaxed about such language.
I wonder what they call Cillit Bang! ?
When I was growing up, there was a cleanser called Vim; over here, there are Comet, Ajax, and Bon Ami. It's always interesting to see the names of household products the world over. :)
ReplyDeleteMy Mum used Vim too. I've seen Bon Ami mentioned on other USA blogs
DeleteI read of an American Christian woman who always bought Dove soap, Pledge polish and Joy washing up liquid to remind her of the Holy Spirit, God's promises and the Joy of the Lord as she did her housework...
ReplyDeleteThat's taking things a bit far! Was she a Method-ist?
DeleteTee hee! But I keep a bar of Dove in my sock drawer....
DeleteThere was a fourteen year old boy who had a crush on our daughter and proudly told her that he’d made his mother switch to Dawn dishwashing liquid.
DeleteAng, your answer made me choke my tea!
DeleteJanF
I love the boyfriend story. Apologies for the choking incident Jan!
DeleteHa, well diverted!
ReplyDeleteA famous family memory involves my sister as a young girl. Grandma dropped something and said, "Oh s....sausages!". To which my sister sweetly replied, "No Grandma, you say, 'Sod it!'
Out of the mouths of babes....
DeleteI love to go to supermarkets and hardware shops or equivalent when abroad, it is interesting to see what products are on the shelves. Regards Sue H
ReplyDeleteIsn't it fascinating!
DeleteDiatomaceous earth is used by my neighbour for her alpacas. They like rolling so it is on the floor in their indoor shelter/stable to keep their coats clean and healthy. I had not heard of it till I met her. Is Vim still around?
ReplyDeleteThat's interesting about DE. Vim became Jif, then CIF in the UK. But you can buy Vim over the internet
DeleteI wondered what had happened to Vim so thanks for the explanation! I’m about to get out the pink stuff and clean the bathroom as it’s raining and I can’t go into the garden. Catriona
ReplyDeleteWe have clouds here, no rain yet
DeleteMy mum liked Ajax over Vim, for years I used Jif ( why ever did they rename it Cif? ) Now, for bath and sinks I'm using a little Castile liquid soap with a sprinkling of baking soda ( comes in a handy dispensing container from Savers ) lasts ages and my hands don't suffer from dermatitis, plus no artificial smell.
ReplyDeleteAlison in Wales x
Do you get your Castile soap online? And does it work out cheaper
DeleteIf my mother dropped something or burned herself in the kitchen she’d spell out “S-H…”. At age 4-5 I was young enough that I could read but I couldn’t picture words in my head. Curious as to what she’d spelled I wrote it down, gasped, and went to show her what I’d written and told her she wasn’t supposed to say that word.
ReplyDeleteLovelystory
DeleteLovelystory
DeleteHere it is called "Bref".
ReplyDeleteAnd in GDR times it was called "ATA - fine - cleaning and scouring agents".
And when I think of Paris, dear Angela, my heart smiles with joy.
A cheerful greeting comes to you from Viola
Greetings to you too Viola ❤️😊
ReplyDeleteOnly you could find a B&Q store in Paris!
ReplyDeleteI must disagree about Vim and Jif and Cif. Vim is a scouring powder and not a cream and in my opinion is not related to Jif and Cif. Jif had to change its name to Cif due to copyright reasons some years ago. Thorns in Norwich used to stock the Vim powder although I haven't been in for some time to know if they still do.
ReplyDeleteThey are all from the Unilever family, and apparently Cif is sold under the names Jif, Vim, Viss and Handy Andy, depending on which of the 51 countries it is sold in. In Sweden, and South Africa, the products were originally sold under the name Vim before this was changed to Jif, the launch name in the United Kingdom, Ireland, the Netherlands and Hong Kong. And yes, Vim was originally a powder, but later sold as a cream in some countries. Its all very confusing! Thorns no longer sells Vim powder, but does sell Big D scouring powder which is similar, and also Cif Cream.
DeleteThere is a food friendly form of DE that we use to add to maple syrup when it goes through the filter press. The DE picks up the sugar sand or niter and deposits it on the filter papers, leaving a crystal clear syrup.
ReplyDeleteI'm learning so much about this stuff
DeleteInteresting bottles of useful stuff.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of Paris, I can travel about 12 miles east to Paris, KY, 12 miles south to Versailles (Home of the last Derby Winner), and I grew up in Glasgow, Ky. If you've had Bourbon, it may have been from this part of our state, or driven a Corvette made down close to Glasgow? Lots of European influence going on around here.
That's amazing. The next but one road to us is called Lincoln Close, because Abe's great grandpa came from this little village. And Ike came here in WW2 to watch planes taking off from our airfield (which had the longest grass runway in Europe at the time)
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