Five Months in Bourgogne Archives - DIGIVU Combined Blogs

Tastes in Sweets, Reinforcing Understanding of French Consumers – Five Months in Bourgogne VII

The other day I was at a birthday party where two examples of Mexican sweets were distributed to a mainly French Group of people.

The first was a thin tube approximately 4mm in diameter and about 8cm long, filled with a rather bland tasting heavy jelly. It was very hard to eat and didn’t attract [...]

French Bread, Mie & Sandwiches – Five Months in Bourgogne VI

Here is another interesting post by Chigy which is as much a comparison of country cultures as it is of bread and sandwiches .

from: The House at Le Gros Chigy (click image for full story online)

This post goes a bit further on the differences between French and other bread from a consumer view [...]

Foie Gras Threatens France/German Relationships – 5 Months in Bourgogne V

The exchange between France and Germany, that drew in two French ministers and has been running for two or three weeks has now gone public. It arises from the massive Cologne based Aguna Exhibition banning Foie Gras producers from the exhibition, in response to the pressure from animal rights groups protesting the force feeding of [...]

First View of Food Prices in France! – 5 Months in Bourgogne IV

To begin with I felt that food on France would be expensive and didn’t look too hard. Lately I have started taking a bit more note and am beginning to wonder what is going on. After coming home from a medium sized supermarket in Cluny, a small rural town, I took these items out of [...]

Misleading Packaging, The Same The World Over? – 5 Months in Bourgogne IV

I’ve always taken the arguments about cereals “compacting” in the retail chain as the reason for boxes with large ullages with a large pinches of salt. Just like the thick separating sheets that mean you get fewer layers of chocolates in a box and the false bottoms I believe its an attempt to make the [...]

Electronics in French Supermarkets – Five Months in Bourgogne III

I have noticed a number of electronic processes in French Supermarkets that are probably in place to save labour and might therefore not be appropriate for South Africa. However, they are interesting in that they show what is happening in France.

LCD Shelf Price Indication

On a previous visit, about three years ago, many supermarkets [...]

French Bread, Global Warming and Carbon Footprint – Five Months in Bourgogne II

Here is an interesting post, where the writer has satisfied his inquisitiveness about the way the French use bread by doing a short analysis of carbon footprints.

from: The House at Le Gros Chigy (click image for full story online)

He finds that its likely that most of those who collect their bread [...]

A Novel Technology For Macadamia Nut Cracking – Five Months in Bourgogne I

Probably the most distinguishing feature of Macadamia Nuts is their very hard shells. While the nut can be easily broken with a heavy hammer on a hard surface, the simple nut cracker which all other nuts yield to is not usable. The alternative to bringing a sledge hammer to the dining room table, seems to [...]