Today was my favorite day so far. We got a mixture of interesting company visits and some amazing sightseeing. The best part? My luggage arrived! We got the call while at lunch that two more suitcases had arrived, and I was lucky number eight. Three of my colleagues are still without theirs and we are just hoping the rest arrives tomorrow since we head to Paris Friday morning. The clock is ticking and getting louder by the minute.
So back to business. This morning we drove to Quimper in our caravan of silver cars, which seem very popular in Brest and makes staying together a bit more challenging. Our first company visit? Manoir de Kinkiz, a ciderie. Following in the same tradition as our previous visits, the focus here is on quality. This was a relatively small operation and they’re clearly not focused on churning out products like so many companies do. Now, when I think of apple cider, I tend to think of the non-alcoholic juice. Manoir de Kinkiz makes apple cider brandy and let me tell you it was strong, and possibly even stronger since we were doing our samples at eleven o’clock in the morning.
Our guide and femme de la residence, Morgan, told us 11 am is the best time to sample. Whether that was true or not, the French do have a very different way of conducting their daily schedule and when it’s appropriate to drink during the day. Alcoholic beverages are not consumed during lunch in the US for the most part. Our lunches are quick and we get back to work as soon as possible. Then French, and even the students, take a two hour lunch that often involves some wine of hard cider. For me, having a drink in the middle of the day feels unnatural because I tend to think of wine or liquor as an evening drink that is only for when you are done for the day and want to slow down. The French slow down right in the middle of the day instead. With our time in Paris fast approaching, I am curious what lunch on a weekend looks like in France.
Our second visit was to Armor Lux, which is a French clothing manufacturer. Our guides were two interns, so I don’t think we got the best view of the company as there were several questions that went unanswered. Yet there was one component of this company’s practices that shocked me. For shirts that get embroidered, they use a floppy disc that has the logo on it. No flash drive, no CD. A floppy disc. I didn’t know they still made those. I don’t know if they’re slow to change at the company or if the costs to digitize are too high (or maybe a bit of both), but I was really surprised to see a floppy disc in a corporation in the digital age. Another interesting fact was that the intern said they don’t have standard models for sizing. Rather, they have an employee try the clothing on to check size. For a company of that size (30 outlet stores) and quality, I have a hard time believing that is how they check their sizing. But if it’s true, another example of a very low tech implementation. We were there on one of the days of their 2 annual sales and the warehouse was crawling with seniors. We were far and away the youngest people there. And yet their advertisements feature models in their twenties. I felt like there was a real disconnect from the customer base and the image the company is putting out there.
After Armor Lux, we headed to the coast where we walked around, took pictures and got a late dinner. I’ll never get used to how light it stays here in the evenings. It’s still bright out at 10 o’clock at night, which hasn’t made getting to bed early easy.
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