Archive for May, 2009
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General de Gaulle visits Isigny
Sunday, May 31st, 2009
Having spent the war years in London at the head of the exiled Free French forces, General Charles de Gaulle was able to reach France on June 14 1944, when he visited Bayeux, Grandcamp and Isigny-sur-Mer. He was greeted by crowds in Bayeux, which had been liberated by British troops without a struggle a week [...]
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Standing at the crossroads of history
Saturday, May 30th, 2009
As the Allied landing forces approached the Normandy coast in June 1944, Isigny sur Mer found itself sandwiched between two battle zones. To the north north-east, Omaha beach saw some of the heaviest fighting in the whole sector, while on the other side of the estuary from Isigny was Utah beach, where some 23,000 US [...]
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Isigny visits Paris for Concours général agricole
Monday, May 25th, 2009
As well as receiving trade visitors from Paris, in 1934 the Isigny dairy cooperative started to enter its products for the Concours général agricole (CGA), France’s annual national food and farming contest. This competition was set up by the French state in 1870 and is reserved for agricultural products, either in their original state or [...]
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Visits become part of butter calendar
Monday, May 25th, 2009
The first group of visiting crémiers must have talked about little else than Isigny on their return from Normandy. The visit to Isigny sur Mer for a study tour became an annual fixture for the Parisians, for whom the invitation to Isigny was a source of both inspiration and enlightenment. Visiting a farm in the [...]
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Visits build knowledge and confidence
Monday, May 25th, 2009
Henri Babeur was quick to build the confidence of customers by inviting them to visit Isigny sur Mer. Whatever the Paris crémier was to tell Parisian customers needed to be based on the cremier’s own observations to be credible. Working with Georges Picou, the Parisian wholesale trader, Babeur organised a special train and cars to [...]
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The ‘little cooperative’ faces tough start
Monday, May 25th, 2009
After much work, including the construction of a new factory, the Isigny cooperative opened for business in December 1932. Taking in just over four and a half tonnes of milk a day, the new business struggled. Newly-appointed director Jacques de Lussan worked with a skeleton staff of half a dozen to manage the complete process. [...]
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Churning challenge to new dairy venture
Monday, May 25th, 2009
Following an exploratory meeting in January 1930, a month or so later, some 300 to 400 Isigny milk producers turned out for a meeting to formally launch a milk producers’ syndicate. All the local processors and merchants were present, too. While the producers voted unanimously for the aims of the new syndicate, the processors and [...]
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Isigny milk producers band together
Sunday, May 24th, 2009
After the First World War and the demise of Louis Dupont’s first cooperative, the chill winds of change started to blow through the Isigny economy. A continuing wariness in relations between dairy farmers and butter merchants was punctuated with accusations of speculative trading in butter and the misuse of the Isigny name to sell blends [...]
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The Model Dairy runs out of steam
Saturday, May 23rd, 2009
From its arrival in rue de Brésil as milk to its despatch as butter, workers on the production floor never touched any of the food they were working on. Using the Danish system for ripening cream before it is churned, the Model Dairy made butter that could be kept for four weeks and more, or [...]
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Model Dairy puts business into butter
Friday, May 22nd, 2009
Louis Dupont presented the Model Dairy’s sales ledger every month to the milk producers so that there could be no doubt as to what their hard work was worth. Since butter is 80% butterfat, it was logical to pay for milk in proportion to its fat content and what the finished butter was earning in [...]
