Archive for the ‘Normandy’ category
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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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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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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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How Danish ideas shaped the Model Dairy
Thursday, May 21st, 2009
When Louis Dupont set up his dairy cooperative in 1905, he applied the lessons he had learnt in Denmark, where he had visited dairy cooperative some years previously to understand what the Scandinavians were doing.
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Butter moves from farm to workshop
Thursday, May 14th, 2009
Butter merchant François Demagny joined forces with two other merchants to build a modern buttermaking workshop around 1880. The plan was to centralise buttermaking and buy milk directly from farmers instead of finished butter. The trio was later joined by a young industrialist from Paris, Louis Dupont. Having travelled extensively in Denmark to study the [...]
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Butter across the sea
Wednesday, May 13th, 2009
Normandy butter travelled far and wide during the 19th century, taken by transatlantic steamers from Le Havre to the Americas (Isigny salted butter had already been traded in Brazil since the 18th century). The ships that left Le Havre loaded with butter to Rio de Janeiro, returned laden with coffee on the homeward leg. There [...]
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Railways spread English appetite for butter
Tuesday, May 12th, 2009
When provision merchant John Sainsbury set up shop in London’s Drury Lane, he built his business with the slogan: “The best butter in London”. His best butters came from Normandy and were a valued part of the business for years to come. Normandy butter was on show at London’s first Universal Exhibition in 1867, where [...]
