More tales from Cheeseland : SCAPA

My first work experience placement was just lovely. After spending the previous week sunning myself at lakes and parks, I was proud of my tan, and took myself to a large refrigerated cheese warehouse where I could show it off underneath 5 fleeces and a body warmer…

The SCAPA is a cooperative depot, its customers are cheese sellers, they either have market stalls or boutiques, they come regularly and know the staff well. There’s a good atmosphere, the clients and the staff ‘fait les bises’, everyone has a laugh and there’s a fair amount of breaking off to chat, eat cheese and drink coffee. A lovely lady named Claudie showed me the ropes. Preparing customers orders or huge trollies. In fact I could liken this job to doing your shopping in a giant cheese supermarket 20 times a day.  Awesome! 5 huge refrigerated rooms house billions of cheeses. We ran around manically finding them and flinging them on to trollies. I got a huge kick every time she said Saint Marcellin (a popular Lyonnais cheese) with her Marseille accent, which sounds like she’s saying “seng marcelleng”!

I was amused to find (especially after my last blog entry) that there was a customer called “Fromagerie Gandalf”!!! A wonderful image came into my head of a Frenchman with a long white beard and a staff, proclaiming down at his cheese “you shall not pass! ( Your sell by date for the next few weeks.)”

I had a wonderful time getting an inside look on the cheese industry and the people there couldn’t have been nicer, the day I left (after only 4 days!) I was presented with an Opinel knife for cutting cheese as a leaving gift. Awwww I love cheesy people.