Yes, your friends must have had a job to find the material shops, they are few and far between, unless of course you go to the big cities. Out here in the sticks it costs 14 Euros a metre thats 17.4713 US Dollars.
Now you know why I get nearly all my fabric from the web, I can buy nice fabric for 4 or 5 Dollars and pay shipping and its still cheaper by far.
Just been exchanging the price of gas for the car and we are paying 1.08 Euros per litre that works out at 6.21 US Dollars. So those kind of things are expensive, I think everything else is fairly cheap, Cheaper than the UK that is for sure.
Elle