This is pretty strange. Do they eat less? Do they not have kids? That may be it; the rate is low in Europe.

The thought of walking to multiple shops just to buy food is a nightmare scenario to me. Considering just milk, I probably go through roughly 2 gallons (eh, 9 L) per day. I probably go through twice that much in juice. There will be a couple loaves of bread, 2 or 3 kg of meat, a hand of bananas (don't bruise them!), several large tomatos, half a kg of chocolate...

That's one day. Judging by filled grocery carts, it's about 0.2 cubic meters of stuff, a.k.a. 200 L of stuff. I think that comes to about 200 kg, given that the density of metal and glass (containers) kind of compensates for air pockets.

I could make 10 trips. Ugh. I could enlist all the little children, marching them through whatever bad weather there may be and trying not to lose any along the way. While we walk, the ice cream melts and the glass bottles get dropped. Think how many little kids would be needed to transport 200 L weighing about 200 kg.

I don't see how this is viable. Are you living on dried food? Milk powder is just not the same, and I've never even seen real juice powder. Assuming juice powder even exists, I'm sure it won't be like not-from-concentrate orange juice with extra pulp.

I'm imagining a family trudging through the winter snow in Paris. Everybody has a huge aluminum-frame hiking pack, including kids who are barely old enough to walk. To avoid losing any kids along the way, they are roped together kind of like a chain gang. It still takes multiple trips.

The difference is that Paris, just like many EU cities, has a very different layout from most US cities. The city of Paris actually compares to inner cities, with suburbs being other cities around. The difference is that most integration between Paris (Paris and its immediate surroundings concentrates most of the workplaces) and the suburbs is done by public transportation, and that the inner city infrastructure can't support the affluence of cars cars.

The kind of large families like you have are very rare in paris, for multiple reasons : -it's easier to afford more space/a house outside of Paris. The people that can afford large housing in Paris definitely can afford alternative solutions. -Having a large family and having to care for it by yourself means you rather have a car (e.g. to drive children to school, activities, vacations, etc). Having a car in Paris is not a good idea. -Cities outside paris are usually more friendly to families : it's easier for schools to take the kids in woods for sports activities or hikes, sports facilities are more accessible, etc. -Also, more families outside of Paris means that your children will grow in a neighbourhood with families. There's little for children to do outside of home/school in Paris.

Btw, your grocery list feels like your family is around 15-20 people. Families are considered large from 2 adults/4 children here. While it was common before the boomers' generation, families with more than 6 children are almost non-existent now. Also housing 15-20 people decently in Paris probably means you could hire people to take care of groceries...

(also lasting snow is maybe once-a-year in Paris these days, and it's usually chaos these days)

I suppose it could work for people who are athletic and single, such as typical college students and recent graduates. I did once live in Boston without a car.

Outside of Paris is supposedly not very French anymore, and not very safe. It doesn't seem like a place you'd willingly live with kids. Maybe you mean really far away, far beyond the suburbs.

Your culture goes extinct if you don't make more.

I have 12 people, including one who is 198 cm tall and still growing. Standards for "decently" vary; large families normally cram people into a normal-sized house (140 to 280 m²) almost like the pre-boomer generations did.

"Outside of Paris is supposedly not very French anymore, and not very safe."

I do not know where you get your information but you may have to change your sources. It seems very "FoxNewsy"

We lost what was closest to non-partisan news a couple years back when CNN decided to go liberal. Since then our news choices have been 100% junk. I might as well go with Fox, since at least it isn't trying to push Democrat framing of everything.

I wouldn't do any better by following news that refuses to cover anything that doesn't mesh well with the liberal agenda.

Those riots in the Paris suburbs... did you not hear about them, or do you think they were faked, maybe like the Moon landings? What about the sunbathing lady in the park? What about the people who claim to have been harassed and worse by neighborhood sharia patrols while doing things like carrying alcoholic drinks? None of this is safe, and it sure doesn't sound very French to me.

I don't know for the families we are just two. For sure we don't consume 9L of milk and 18L of juice per day (not even per month). I drink tap water. I do groceries three time a week, usually takes 20/25 minutes.

Then quantities you are taking about seems really huge to me, even for a family of five. May I ask where you are from ?

I'm in the USA, with a family of twelve. My wife is very Catholic, which used to be the norm for France.

We easily finish two whole chickens in one meal. We can almost manage to finish a 10 kg turkey.

Even for a little family of five, shopping without a car seems like it would be terribly difficult.

How big is your family?

I don't think i can fill a shopping cart with the groceries for one week for two people.

It's a dozen people. I've known bigger families.