French Connection

This central area of France is confirmed Charolais country

Friday as I drove back to Baptiste's farm from the nearby city of Moulins, I felt a pang of sadness that this was my last day in France.

In the old centre of Moulins

View across the River Allier to Moulins

Chateau de Sagonne, one of the nice old buildings I saw along the road!

Between the conference & battlefield tour earlier in the year, my week in Brittany and these last few days in the centre of France, I feel that, incomplete as it must be, I have some insight into and empathy for the farmers in this place.
Brittany grows between half & three quarters the pasture we do, with zero for 2 months of winter & susceptibility to summer drought.

Heifer block with train bridge - also highway and village behind me!

Normande cows for organic milk/cheese production

Calves being reared to 9 months on nurse cows

Cross-bred cows on very low allowable nitrogen use farm

Non-farmers are both close at hand and en-masse. While this block of local consumers is an advantage to those adventurous farmers who choose to direct market or produce some form of higher value product (I had the opportunity to meet a few), those urban neighbours have preferences that are not always farmer-friendly. Other dairy farmers elect a low-cost system, emulating in part a NZ style, but these are few and certainly little understood by the farming peers that prefer to leave many questions unasked.
Society is far more socialist than ours & with a working week of 35 hours & annual leave of five weeks, farm work is not a preferred choice for most. Tax & social security payments are hefty for profitable businesses.

Farm shop direct marketing organic farm products

Hay drying, storing and feeding facility... makes the cheese from the Normande herd better!

One of Brittany's many tidal estuaries 

There are 3 farmers' unions here! One person explained there is a 'right-aligned' group, a 'left-aligned' and a 'generally-protesting-about-everything-group'. Simplistic as the explanation may be, it nonetheless describes a fractured farming politics landscape. I even got to experience the indirect impact of a farmer demonstration... leaving the Brittany equivalent of "National Fieldays meets the Royal Show" on Wednesday, having got to my car at around 5:15pm, I finally arrived at my host's place about 30km away some 3.5 hours later... It turns out the cars were unable to exit carpark B because of the tractors from farmers from the left aligned group blocking a major, key roundabout. Some creative folk had rolled a rock aside allowing some vehicles (mine included) slow egress via another, also full, carpark! Fortunately, my hosts for the evening had also been at the show... Alain accompanied me so we passed the time quite amiably!

Top of Trevarn's heifer block - lovely view, but very summer-dry

I had only 3 hosts for my 10 days in France, spending a whole week at Gaec Trevarn (meaning "Trevarn Farm") in the region of Finistère in Brittany. It was reviving to spend that long in one place, after a week away from Amsterdam that gave me just 4 nights at home with my family, the balance of the time spent in airports or aeroplanes!

Melting raclette cheese for our potatoes - yum!

My host Oivier had planned an interesting array of visits including a conservation association, two diverse pig farmers, several dairy farms (incuding an open day at the local research farm), local farm 'supermarket' and the locally originated corporate version and even a discussion group!

Discussion group lunch - pot-luck, BYO plates etc

The Celtic origins of Brittany are evident in the markings on the churches, headstones and many wayside crosses/shrines. Also the roadsigns have place names in both French and Breton.
Fitting that my next destination shares a similar heritage... Ireland!