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Buying cheese from markets


Hoddy

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It has ben reported Sud-Ouest that there is a cheese seller at Sarlat market whose average price for cheese is E39.95. This is ordinary cheese not claimed to be of a particularly fine quality. Most of those regularly resident in France will beware of stalls of any kind which display high prices or sometimes no prices at all. I thought it might be worth a reminder to those of you who let gites to be warn their guests about where and how they buy their cheese (and anything else for that matter) because although cheese is expensive it is not normally as expensive as all that.

I should add of course that most of the traders are honest people and dislike these 'rogues' as much as anyone else does.

Hoddy
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This has been going on for some years - they employ good looking young gurls that speak English.

They solicit holiday makers with samples and sell dubious old cheese at very high prices.

In Perigueux I have seen locals warning the toursits that they are being ripped off.
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[quote user="Hoddy"]

It has ben reported Sud-Ouest that there is a cheese seller at Sarlat market whose average price for cheese is E39.95. This is ordinary cheese not claimed to be of a particularly fine quality. ............. I should add of course that most of the traders are honest people and dislike these 'rogues' as much as anyone else does. Hoddy

[/quote]

Why is this trader a "rogue"? He is not claiming that his cheese is something that it is not so he seems to me to be a sensible businessman taking advantage of an opportunity. Hardly his fault if some customers have more money than sense.

John

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We clearly have a difference of opinion John. I think that someone who deliberately overprices something in the knowledge that their customers will be operating in a different currency and a different weight system qualifies as a rogue.

Hoddy

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This overpricing also happns with Olives, the upmarket ones with herbs and spices in stoneware pots.

They give free samples and I am sure the olives taste good but they are priced per 100gm or 250 gms.

At around 6 euros for these wieghts you are paying a small portion for olives.
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I buy my cheese from a market trader who comes to town every Saturday. His prices are the same, whether there or at his stalls in Les Halles at Nimes or Avignon - I've checked! It's a touristy town, with thousands of visitors each week, but prices seem fair generally. High, but fair, according to prices in other towns nearby.

I'm always surprised by how much the final totals are for other people's cheese, and fish; also for their meat at the butcher's shop. I'm not talking about tourists here - just bog-standard locals, who I see about the place regularly.

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I only buy my cheese either at a specialist shop or from the producer at our marché paysan.

Supermarket cheese is expensive, because it is often almost inedible.

I don't think the problem is with Markets.  It is more a question of a few individuals who profit from the gullibility of tourists

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[quote user="NormanH"]I only buy my cheese either at a specialist shop or from the producer at our marché paysan.

Supermarket cheese is expensive, because it is often almost inedible.

I don't think the problem is with Markets.  It is more a question of a few individuals who profit from the gullibility of tourists
[/quote]

You mean it's expensive because of the process it goes through to make it inedible?? [:-))]

[:D][:P][:D]

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[quote user="Hoddy"]

We clearly have a difference of opinion John.

[/quote]

Yes we have. Almost the first words I remember from Mercantile Law are "caveat emptor" and I try to do just that. Others will do what they do.

John

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We don't buy anything from markets, they are twice the price than we would pay from the supermarkets or even the smaller shops for good quality produce. The last straw was seeing nectarines on the local market coming from the same supplier's trays that my son unloads in Lidl and twice the price too! Markets are for tourist unless you find the odd gem.
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Might be a regional thing.

Here we are near fruit orchards for soft fruit such as peaches which are of a quality I have never found in supermarkets, and the only people allowed to have stall are those who actually produce the stuff, so I get yoghurt and fromage frais from a chap who has 12 cows, and charcutererie cured from pigs reared just above us in the mountains.

It certainly isn't the same produce as you find in Lidl (which I am not knocking for certain things such as olive oil or tinned products)

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But, Val_2, the markets are there all year round, and the tourists aren't - or certainly not in such enormous numbers. People I see year round here at the market are those who live here, many of whom grew up here, and who frequent the market twice weekly. They also buy at the supermarket of course, as do we, but selectively. Our local producers sell very fresh produce at good prices; I know where the apricots are from, also the salads etc. Not just from the Gard, but from the fields around our town. I buy things which aren't grown locally from a small greengrocer in town who alsooffers good produce. But I rarely buy fresh fruit or vegetables from supermarkets in France, although I've seen that some of it looks good.  I certainly wouldn't like to be diddled in the way you mention, though.
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Gardengirl - it was the local regular stallholders who complained about this man. As I tried to indicate in my original post he was attempting to sell his cheese to tourists.

Obviously those who live here, even part-time, will have their preferred suppliers.

Hoddy
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If I dont have other obligations I go to the arab market in Amiens at the end of sunday morning for my fruit and veg, I guess that I get the majority of my fresh produce there but I only buy when it is in season and cheaper than Lidl/Aldi whom I use them as my reference.

The market stallholders will knock down the price of their unsold produce towards the end of the morning, at this time of year their is a glut of soft fruit but cabbages, lettuces etc hard to find and more expensive, this Sunday I came away laden with pineapples and mangoes at €4 per case, they are excellent this time but its always a bit pot luck, you only know after a couple of days have elapsed whether you need to eat/freeze all of them quickly.

What I like about the fruit at Lidl is that it is always relatively fresh, I can buy 2kg of apples or pears and not have to worry about them turning to mush - usually!. The veg is a little less predictable but overall, considering that the core produce is available all year round they are probably cheaper than if you were to buy from the market every week.

So my thinking is, hard discount supermarkets, - reasonable value, good produce all year round, markets like mine where tourists would not venture for fear of having their throat cut, variable quality and price, some very good seasonal bargains and some super expensive stuff like patates douce.

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You are lucky to have an ethnic market - in UK I could go to Leicester to buy mangoes at £4 a case and they were fresh airfreight best Indian quality.

Here you get useless tasteless South American mangoes - the African ones are a little better.

We had a local ethnic shop that sold lose spices and interesting things like beer from Dakar - sadly closed.

We have acres of apples trees nearby so are never short of scrumped apples - wild and free always tastes better and has more pranic energy.

The local Bio farmer lets lots of his fruit go to rot on the trees - so we do not feel too guilty.
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We have a small but very well-tended and productive orchard next to our house.

However, despite every attempt at ingratiation with the owner, he has yet to offer me so much as a cherry. When he's working in the heat, I always offer him drinks (which he always declines) and I pat his dog on the head and I tell him how nice his orchard looks and how much fruit he has.

Still....nothing from him apart from a couple of kisses![:P]

I ask you, what more could I do?  I see a pomegranate tree which has fruit that look to be plentiful....

OH says we've got a torch if I wanted to do a midnight raid, but then I'd feel guilty and might well confess next time I see him[:'(]

It's thoroughly annoying because I have to put up with the loud music he plays on his car radio every time he's working in the orchard![+o(]

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Ah the noise, well, even though I got on well with my neighbours, IF their music was too loud I would put on something I liked and really really loudly, some Mussorgsky or Beethoven's 5th or 7th, usually they end up turning theirs down and so would I. [;-)]

Sounds like you'll see the fruit continue ripening, then falling and rotting, should you be calling him Tonton Picsou? sounds like a miserable devil.

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Oops, must backtrack a bit.  I've just been out to say "bon soir" to the orchard owner and he's given me 7 yellow plums, 2 of which were disintegrating in my hands even as I took them from him.

Still, the 3 that I have scoffed are truly magnificent, sweet and fragrant.

What I buy from the markets are veg and fruit in season; blette (which I love), spinach and flat peaches.

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