Be the change you wish to see in the world

This picture recently came up in my Instagram feed ...

Image from Instagram

... and someone in the comments wanted to know where they could buy the sign as they are setting up a zero waste shop.

But ...

Whilst the message is spot on, it seems completely ironic to me that someone setting up a zero waste shop should be asking where they can buy a sign that would have be transported with associated packaging materials.   So I suggested that to be true to their cause they should really should be making a sign themselves from local stuff that would otherwise go into landfill.  They replied that they would not know how to even start making a sign like that and anyway zero waste is not about not buying anything new.  I further replied that perhaps a better solution would be to get someone local to make the sign, maybe a school or college, thus helping to build local networks and spread the zero waste message.  In our journey to save the planet we may not stop be able to stop buying things but we do need to look for sustainable alternativese.

Sadly though, I am not sure they were overly impressed with my comments.  For daring to air my opinions the person setting up the zero waste shop has now removed their comments both asking where to buy the sign and their inability to make their own .... and blocked me from their Instagram account.

We are all entitled to our opinions and I was not rude.   I simply added what I felt was a valid point and I believe that anyone in business needs to be able to deal with feedback.  Blocking them is hardly a constructive way of going about this.

What do you think - was I wrong to add my viewpoint and were my comments valid?  Feedback welcome!

Is it Weird to be Green?

Weird

/wɪəd/

adjective

1. Suggestive of or relating to the supernatural; eerie

2. Strange or bizarre

Source - Thesaurus.com

I ask this because several times recently I have been reading green blogs where the writer has used the word weird.  There was Susie's Weird Green Christmas and Ness mentioned that you could still be green at work without being branded the office weirdo.  But both these are lovely ladies and they are most definitely not weird in my book and they were writing about things that should be totally normal - about reducing and reusing, about taking steps towards a better world.  So why should these ideas be seen as weird especially when you realise that the first antonym given in my online dictionary for weird is NATURAL?  And look at all these other antonyms from the thesaurus ....

weird. (n.d.). Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition. Retrieved January 24, 2017 from Thesaurus.com website http://www.thesaurus.com/browse/weird

Being Green might be perceived as being weird but in our weird world it is really the other way round.  Being Green is genuine, good, natural, usual and I hope, it time, it will become normal and ordinary, what everyone does every day without even thinking and not doing these should be seen as being weird.  I, for one, am proud to be green and if that means I am also labelled weird then I am happy to go with that ... but I do hope in time the tables will turn and it will be those who do not embrace green principles who will be seen as being weird.  In a time of great environmental uncertainty under the current leadership of America, we need to work even harder to make green normal.

Are you proud to be green and by association also proud to be the one of the weird ones?

Wednesday Wonderings - Would you buy Ugly Veg?

Posted by Rosie

If you go into any supermarket in the western world you will be greeted with rows of perfect-looking vegetables, all of uniform size, often shiny and frequently wrapped in plastic.  Any imperfect looking produce will have either been turned into something where it is unrecognisable (soup, purée etc) or, in far too many cases, have been rejected by the supermarket buyers leaving the farmer no choice but to plough it back into the soil.  Supermarkets will argue that they have been pushed to supply this perfect looking produce because that is what their customers want. Customers now expect this but only because they have been conditioned to believe that only perfect looking means the best in quality.

It's a chicken and egg situation but really it doesn't matter how it came about because the end result today is the same - it results in a large amount of fresh produce being rejected and wasted which cannot be sustainable.  Therefore, when I saw a video on Facebook that showed that InterMarché (one of France's big supermarkets) was starting to sell "Ugly Veg"  I was very interested.  It showed forked carrots, lumpy peppers and all sorts of other misshapen vegetables (and fruit) for sale under the banner "Les Légumes Moches" and went on to say how they would taste exactly the same as other produce when in a purée, smoothie or soup.  


 
Actually I was more than interested, I was excited.  This seemed like a great step in the right direction ... only when I went to my local InterMarché there was no Ugly Veg to be seen.  Imagine my pleasure then, when a couple of weeks ago Les Carrottes Moches (Ugly Carrots) turned up at my local branch.  Great news .... or maybe not so great.

Les Carottes Moches

On closer examination the carrots were not what I would have called ugly, but were in fact a mixture of broken and split roots, many were poor quality and some were even mouldy.  And at 75c/kg they were only 9c/kg cheaper than the Top Budget range of carrots, which are washed, bagged and of much better quality.  (For UK comparison, Sainsbury Basics carrots are currently 57p or 76c/kg)

I did buy some and I can, in fact, report that they made a very nice soup mixed with butternut squash.  However, I seriously doubted whether many other people would buy them, when seemingly much better carrots were just 9c/kg more expensive.  Also if you go to the local agricultural merchant/garden centre you can buy a 20 kilo bag of horse carrots of identical quality to the Carrottes Moches for €4.30 or 21½c/kg.  Our pigs love them but they are fine for us to eat too, and very tasty.

20kgs bag of horse carrots

I decided that I would head back to InterMarché and see how many people were buying the Ugly Carrots, only to find on arrival that they were no longer for sale. This fact would appear to speak for itself and I suspect few people had puchased any.

I find this a rather sad state of affairs.  The idea of selling ugly veg is, in my opinion, brilliant.  It saves waste and begins the process of re-educating people to accept that all veg, what-ever it's shape or size, is just as good to eat as it's perfect looking cousin.  I also know from experience that the tastiest strawberries from our garden are, in fact, the small, oddly shaped ones that you will never find on a supermarket shelf.  So I do think Intermarché needs to have a rethink of the Ugly Veg programme in order to succeed in getting it's customers to accept less than perfection is just as good.  It will takes time, a gentle approach and something that will help them to save money.

This therefore is my message to InterMarché.  By all means sell your ugly veg as they are absolutely fine.  But you also need to:

• Reduce the price significantly compared to the cheapest alternative
• Start by introducing somewhat better-looking ugly veg and only slowly introduce more extreme ones
• At all times ensure that whilst the vegetables may be ugly they must never be mouldy, offcuts or of poor quality.

Over to you then.  Do you think "Ugly Veg" is a good idea and would you be happy to buy such produce?  Would you do this at any price or only if the price is significantly cheaper.  Do you think it is something that will catch on?  I would be very interested to hear you views.

Wednesday Wonderings - Kids' birthday parties

Posted by Rosie

A couple of press articles have caught my eye over the last week or so.

First, there was all the furore over the parents who invoiced a 5 year old boy who did not turn up for their child's ski slope party.  Then there was yet more shenanigans when Myleene Klass (a celebrity previously unknown to me) tweeted how unhappy she was that 2 parents had asked for a donation towards their children's presents this year, so they could have a class present rather than lots of individual presents.

Image from Pear Tree Greetings

Well I have to say on both counts I was somewhat flabbergasted.  The invoice drama was as total non-story that should never have had any media coverage (says she who is dragging it up again).  I feel that both sides were trying to get their 15 minutes of fame for something that should have been sorted out at the school gate, long before invoices were dispatched. 

However the class gift story fell into a whole different category.  I may be a bit out of touch with middle class England, and certainly schools where the fees are £5,000 per term and to be honest I had no idea who the celebrity was, but I did feel her response was not out of place.  Whether she should have let her views known quite so publicly, on Twitter, is another matter, but I would have felt exactly the same had I been asked for a donation towards a class present.  In their defence, the asking parents said that they did not feel it was unreasonable as they felt this would be a better way for the parents to give their children something that was wanted rather than 20 presents that the children may not want and would serve only to clog up their houses (or words to that effect).

That got me thinking that actually the problem goes back a bit further than either of these incidents.  It goes back to a day, unwritten in history, when a Mum somewhere decided that it would be an excellent idea to invite the WHOLE class to her child's birthday party and in doing so set a dangerous precedent where everyone suddenly had a minimum benchmark to attain.  Parents not wanting to appear mean had to do the same.  Suddenly, in an average class of 30 pupils, there were 29 parties to attend through the year and 29 presents to buy for 29 children, many of whom you do not even know ... hence the buying of unwanted presents that clog up homes across the land.  Great for toy manufacturers.  Expensive for parents.

And it got worse.  Other parents will always want to out-party everyone else and so class parties just got bigger and bigger.  Suddenly you were talking bouncy castles, hire of the local hall, entertainers, ski lope parties and all sorts of other big and expensive adventures.  Kid's birthday parties managed to jump from a few friends round for cake and a round of pass the parcel to something parents may need to take out a second mortgage to afford.  That unnamed Mum who invited the whole class has, in my opinion, got a lot to answer for.

So what do our boys do for their birthdays?  

Tom's birthday was last week and he asked that, rather than having anything particular now, could he take one friend to our local theme park in the summer?  Happy with that.

Ben is a bit more of a party animal but we always limit his parties to about 10 friends.  No entertainer, trips or pricey extras, just a few children, lots of running around, a table full of food to fuel hungry, energetic kids and maybe a treasure hunt if I get around to making the clues.  Ben's happy with that too.

That's how we do it.  What do you think about the children's parties?  Are big parties just the norm now and am I being mean not letting the boys have large and expensive parties?  Please do let me know in a comment.

Wednesday wonderings - should we microchip our children?

Posted by Rosie

Image from the BBC

I saw a link recently on Twitter that led to a BBC 5 link relating to some-one who has developed a chip that could be implanted under the skin enabling the wearer to be tracked.  The wearer in this case is children.  The blurb with the clip said that the developer acknowledged that :

"an implant would be “invasive,” (but) Stephen said “over 95%” of people on social media had responded positively to the idea." 

That puts me very much in the minority then.

So I did a bit more digging and I came up with this discussion site where 57% agreed it would be a good idea.  Seems like I am still in the minority then as I absolutely and totally disagree with the whole idea.  To illustrate my point I have taken some of the "Agree" points and explained why I disagree them.

"There are too many filthy child predators - I believe micro chipping your child would be an excellent idea as when and if god forbid, a child goes missing it would be easy to locate them. There are no guarantees of course, but have a gps tracker inserted into children would mean that parents have have a better chance of getting their child back, and children might not be raped and tortured by these sick monsters."

So ALL children have to be chipped just in case they get kidnapped. I don't know figures on kidnapping but I suspect it is a very low percentage of the whole yet all children would have to have this implant - just in case.  Many sex offenders and kidnappers are known tot he child (close friend or family memeber) and a chip would not protect them in these cases.  I am also quite sure that it would not take long for the worst predators and organised gangs who do traffic children to work out how to either deactivate or at worse remove the chip.  The possible gains from this sort of procedure are, in reality, minuscule.  

"Do you value your pet and your vehicle more than your own child?"

I value my children above all else and that is exactly why I would not invade their human rights to have them chipped.  The chip that my dogs have is not traceable, it is simply there to identify a lost pet who cannot say who their owner is. A child over a certain age can talk and even before then there is DNA should that be needed.  My car does not have a tracker but if it did it would not be invading it's human rights. End of.

"The option should be available - So long as you think parents should be able to have infants ears pierced or genitals cut then I really don't see how this is any worse."

Well actually I am not too happy with ear piecing of young children and as for genital cutting I believe this too should be outlawed other than for medical reasons... as should inserting a microchip.  Would you be happy if I was to chip you and be able to track your each and every movement?

"A parent's choice, in case they go missing - There are many children that disappear, never to be found again, and no way to track them. Dental records and DNA are used to identify the dead. Parents should have the option, in case their child disappears."

It's true, a certain number of children do disappear but I believe that if the perpetrators knew they would chipped they would simply act quicker and be more likely to kill a child than hold them prisoner. A dead child cannot identify their kidnapper.

"Children are the legal and moral responsibly of parents until, at minimum, they are legal adults. It is time that we take responsibly for our children and help monitor for their safety."

And who would  be monitoring our children's movement?  Do you trust a large corporation to be watching each and every move your child makes because that means they are watching you too? Who would retain this information and could you be sure it would not fall into the hands of the wrong people?  Maybe you would have a phone app for just you to track them ... until your phone gets stolen of course ...

"Kids are quick - As a mother of a child with Autism, I am constantly on edge worrying if my child is safe. He has escaped twice, once under my watch (I took my eyes off him for a second and he jumped the fence and got hit my a car) This would give me peace of mind knowing if he ever escaped again, I could find him quickly and hopefully safely."

I understand that there are some children with special needs where being able to track them could  be an advantage.  So give them a bracelet.  Even then it would not have stopped this child being hit by the car.

"When they turned 18, they would be able to remove the chip if they desire."

So an invasive medical procedure that has done nothing to make vast majority of the children who have the implant any safer will need ANOTHER medical intervention to have the chip removed.  2 medical procedures by the age of 18 for absolutely no gain.  And what about those children who run away ... how many of those will try and remove the chip themselves?

Maybe I have judged the popular mood completely wrong.  Maybe I am completely out of touch with the modern world.  I would be very interested to know your opinions on this.  I shall not jump down your throat if would use such an implant as I also believe that everyone is entitled to their own opinion.  Do 95% or even 57% of you think micro-chipping children is a good idea?  What would be your reasons for chipping your child?

Wednesday Wonderings - Why we waste food

Posted by Rosie

This quiz from The Guardian popped up on my Facebook page recently on the subject of food waste and the figures are staggeringly frightening.  Here are just a few:

• Each year the UK wastes 7 million tonnes of food, enough to fill 9 Wembly stadiums   
• The equivalent of 86 million chickens are thrown away each year in the UK
• 24 million slices of bread are chucked DAILY in the UK
• and 1.4 million bananas every day
• Food waste costs the average family £60 per  month or over £700 per year.

That is a lot of waste and a lot of money.

Image from University of Northern Iowa

There are many campaigns out there to try and get people to reduce the waste but I do think that if waste is to be reduced on a dramatic scale then we need to identify why people throw away so much food, much of which is still in a perfectly edible state.

Reasons food is wasted

Changes in shopping habits

Not may years ago people shopped every day for fresh meat, fish and fruit/vegetables.  This was a necessity with little or no refrigeration available but it did mean less waste.  Now people shop on a weekly, fortnightly and even monthly basis, expecting their fresh food to last and maybe not being too sure how much they will need for the duration so overbuy just to be on the safe side.  Overbuying leads to waste.

Food packaging

Much of our fresh food now comes packaged so you'll need to buy the amount the supermarket thinks you want rather than what you actually need.  Single people are forced to buy more than they need and a family of 5 may well have to buy 2 packets of chops, for example, if the chops are only sold in packs of 4 or 2.  

Special offers

How often are you tempted to buy a special offer or extras because they are on a Buy One Get One Free (BOGOF) promotion?  It's all very well if you can eat all you buy but in reality a certain amount of these "free" extras end up in the bin, especially fresh produce.

Image from The Telegraph

Lost cooking skills

Too many people now have never been taught to cook and have no idea how to cook left-overs.  Some are quite happy to follow a recipe but with no recipe to hand that tells you what to do with your left-overs this food heads to the bin.

Poor portion control

It is not always easy to gauge exactly how much to cook.  Appetites can vary or some-one can ring at the last minute to say they won't be home to eat and excess food wings it way to the bin.

Food is cheap

You might not think so as the till racks up your weekly shop but actually a lot of food is cheaper now than it has ever been and so it can be perceived less of a issue if some of it ends up in the bin.  After all, a few slices of bread only represent a few pence/cents but add them up over the year and you soon reach big figures. 

Confusing dates on packaging

Sell by / display until / best before / use by / eat before.  What exactly do they all mean?  People now use these dates as the deciding factor as to whether they should eat something or bin it when in fact the dates do not all mean the same thing and do not all mean the food is no longer edible:

• Sell by / Display Until - the date the shop must sell it by ... it will be edible beyond this date
• Best Before - for the product to be at it's very best eat it before this date. After the date it will still be perfectly safe to eat for several days but may just lose a touch in quality
• Use by / eat before - this is the date that manufacturers advise easting the product before.  However they always give a small amount of leeway especially if the product has been very well stored.  Products don't just go off at midnight on the use by date but too many people are wary of eating anything after this date, even if it looks fine and off to the bin it goes.

Confusing labelling - Image from Daily Mail

Perfect food

We have reached a stage where only perfect looking food is perceived as good enough to eat.  A large apple may have a small blemish so in the bin it goes, rather than simply cutting off the bad bit.  A slightly shrivelled end of a carrot renders it as inedible in the eyes of too many people.


Andrea, in the comments section, raised a couple of points that I have added here:

Too far distanced from food production

Too many people have no idea what actually goes into food production.  If they raised their own animals or grew their own vegetables and fruit they might appreciate the hard work and not be happy to just lob something in the bin.

There is always more food

Our shops rarely run short of food.  As well as big supermarkets in every town there are town centre stores and corner shops as well as an ever increasing number of take-aways.  With food so easily accissible it is not a problem if food at home is thrown away as more can so easily be bought.

Do you throw away food?  If so, maybe you can identify why from the list above.  Understanding why is the first step to solving the problem of food waste and you could be well on your way to saving enough money for a holiday every year.  

And if you throw away bananas do have a look at this blog post - 3 brilliant banana recipes.

Wednesday Wonderings - Should children write thank you letters?

Posted by Rosie

The tree is down, the turkey is but a distant memory and that slightly tight feeling around the waist all that remains to remind you of those Christmas chocolates you scoffed ... oh and all those extra things around the house, the children's presents!  In our house, at least, there is one more reminder of Christmas ... the writing of thank you letters.  As soon as they were old enough to write their names and draw something we got the boys to send a thank you card to anyone who had given them a present but who had not been there to see them open it and it is something they continue to do now.  We feel it's important that they take the time to say thank you, respecting the fact that presents don't just miraculously appear under the tree but some-one went to the effort of buying or making it.  It helps them to learn also, that no-one is under any obligation at all to give them anything anyway.  Finally it keeps alive the tradition of pen to paper writing rather than texting or messaging on social media.

We read an article several years ago from a mother who said she would not make her children write thank you letters - "after all," she went on the explain, "they had so many presents that she could not keep track and some were just tossed over the back of the sofa and ignored during the frenzy of unwrapping." (or words to that effect)

EXCUSE ME??

So many presents she couldn't keep up?
Tossed over the back of the sofa?

Call me old fashioned or tight-fisted, or even both, but in my opinion, those children had far too many presents.  It's all a bit different here at Eco-Gites of Lenault.

The boys both get a stocking and now know that we buy the presents in it.  They include inexpensive items such as a giant paper-clip, a jar of (palm oil free) chocolate spread, highlighter pens, a cheap DVD (which they watch so we can have a bit more time in bed on Christmas Day), the obligatory packet of maltesers plus a satsuma ... oh and a pot of meat paste because that is what Hacker from CBBC likes!!  Later then get their "big" presents - this year they included between them: books, a game, a sports bag, a mug, some money, a remote control car, another DVD, a car kit, a Diary of the Wimpy Kid dressing gown and some Father Christmas eggcups.  Some of these came from us and Sally (their aunt) who was over here for Christmas, but others were from friends and family who were not here and it isto these people that thank you letters are written.

We don't demand reams and reams from them but as they are now both at secondary school we do ask for a couple of sentences making them more that a "Dear so and so, thank you for, love T/B" sort of affair!  Their writing is usually accompanied with some grumblings but to be honest once we get them going they don't take long - this year there were 6 to write.  4 down and 2 to go!

What do you think though?  Peter Ormerod of the Guardian thinks they should not be made to write them but The Thank You Diva thinks they should.  Do your children  write thank you letters or does a quick message on Facebook suffice, or a phone call or maybe you do nothing at all?  If you do get them to write is it done under sufferance or undertaken gladly?  I would love to know if we are in the majority or minority when it comes to this post Christmas job.

Wednesday Wonderings - Does Detention Work?

Posted by Rosie

At the boys' collège (secondary school) they have a system of crosses for bad behaviour and and when a certain number of crosses have been given it leads to a detention .  So far Tom and Ben have received crosses for forgetting to do all or some of their homework, forgetting to take in a text book or suchlike and not handing in a form.  Hardly huge errors in the great scheme of things but errors that are enough to get them a cross, although so far, luckily, not enough to receive a detention.   I am assuming other transgressions will also merit a cross and I do know that for worst behaviour and for repeatedly forgetting something an immediate detention can be given.

So far so good.  I do not have a problem with a school that expects it's pupils to do their homework, to behave and to not forget things.  It builds good routines and organised students which are excellent life skills.  Teachers need to teach and so if there is a disruptive pupil presumably it is hoped that a detention will help them to mend their ways.  The trouble is I do not think this system works.  The boys tell me that the disruptive and least organised pupils get detentions and then continue to be disruptive or to forget things.  Why is this and what do I dislike detention?

Detention takes place on a Friday.  Pupils are kept back for an hour after school and have to do a series of exercises set for them - academic exercises.  

Dislike One

For pupils who take a bus home (remember this school is in a rural area with a large catchment so many pupils rely on the bus) this means their parents will have to come and collect them later whilst those pupils who live in Condé can still walk home.  The boys are actually more worried about how cross we will be if we have to come and collect them late than the actual detention which I suppose is a deterrent in itself but not quite as the school maybe envisaged it!

Dislike Two

Pupils already have a very long day.  Lessons start at 7.50am and home time is not until 4.35pm and there will then be homework to do.  Perhaps a child is being naughty, not doing their homework and forgetting things because they are overly tired.  Adding another hour of school in the form of detention is hardly going to be helpful.

Dislike Three

Tom got a sort of mini detention last year for some minor and long forgotten about misdemeanour.  He was given a series of verbs to conjugate which he was able to do in a free period.  He said it was actually no bother as he had no homework and it gave him something to do. However, what about the child who struggles academically?  It will be harder for them so the punishment is hardly a level playing ground.  For detention it is exactly the same.  Sitting in a room after school and doing academic exercises will be much harder for some pupils than others.  More than that though, I strongly believe that as a school is there to teach pupils you should never use academic exercises as a punishment.  It is counter-productive.

That said,  for all my dislikes I respect that this is the system and that there is a simple solution - do not get crosses!  In theory, yes and we work hard with the boys to help them and hope that in time they will be organised enough to do this themselves.  This is not the case for all families and children.  I also wonder how detention could be better applied.  I think it should be within school time and not academic based but I am not sure exactly what.  Maybe some sort of community based work - clearing litter or raking leaves?  I did know a head at a primary school in England who used to make disruptive pupils jog round the playground and he went with them.  This was aimed at pupils who had too  much energy to sit still and he felt fresh air and exercise was what they needed to help them to concentrate.  Tom, our athlete, rather liked the sound of this for a punishment, so again - not a level playing ground.  

What do you think about detention?  Does your school use it, do you think it works or do you have any better ideas?  Please do let us know in a comment.

Wednesday Wonderings - Cheddar v Camembert

Posted by Rosie

Should the French be selling more Cheddar?

As I grated cheddar cheese into Tom's wrap for his picnic lunch (he is doing the inter-school cross country run today), I got to thinking about some comments I had seen on the web about how awful it was that France doesn't sell cheddar.  In fact it is available in many supermarkets, albeit in small and quite overpriced packets and sometimes in a somewhat worrying rather orange colour.  But should France be selling more of Britain's favourite cheese, as many people were bemoaning, as well as Stilton, Caerphilly, Crowdie and all the others you can buy "back home"?

Image from BBC

France is very proud of it's national identity and French resistance to change is deeply ingrained.  They have the Académie Française that does it's best to prevent anglicised words slipping into the language although, despite their best efforts, the likes of weekend, camping car, sandwich, stop etc are all used quite happily by the French population.  On the question of food some French believe that their food is the finest in the world and they should not be selling "inferior" produce from around other countries in the (quite possibly) mistaken belief that nothing can be as good as their own.  They also strongly believe in their cultural identity, the likes of camembert et al doing much to retain this.  But is this reticence to sell more cheddar simply because they actually believe their cheeses are unsurpassed and they must retain their cultural identity no matter what or are they worried that if shops begin to sell a wide range of British cheeses, many of which are very different to French cheeses, they will see the people move away from Camembert, Port Salut and Roquefort and enjoy these foreign imports.   I don't know.

What I do believe is that France should not have to sell Cheddar or cheese from any other country if it doesn't want to.  They should have the choice.  In doing so you will always know for sure that you are in a French supermarket as the cheese aisle will always be (mostly) full of French cheeses.  However from an economic position I think they are being very short-sighted in not to be selling something that the vast numbers of tourists and ex-pats would so readily buy and something I believe many French people would enjoy.  We stock up on cheddar when we return from trips to England but wouldn't have to if it was readily available here at a competitive price and where-by we would be putting money directly into the French economy.  

Not selling cheddar may well then be a case of French pride shooting itself in the foot.  Simply refusing to sell something because it is not what you have done in the past or because you think your product is better or because you are worried it will outsell French products does not make for great economic sense.   I do not know if cheddar and the likes would ever outstrip Camembert in French cheese sales but I do reckon sales would do well as more French people discover that a cheddar sandwich, eaten on a weekend trip out in their camping car isn't actually as horrible as they might think!  Stop!!  They might even find Branston pickle tastes good too!

Cheddar and Camembert - should they be sharing shelf space in French shops?

What do you think about this?  Do you miss cheddar when you come to France or do you relish the chance to buy French cheese?