Last week I was in Bordeaux to commemorate what would have been our 50th anniversary of living together (10 months now since Sue died). Often when we were in the city we would stroll along the pathway beside the mighty Garonne managing to avoid the breakneck speed of bikes, cargo bikes, scooters, skateboards, roller blades, herds of runners, etc., that also used the route. Somehow we never saw any collisions and the experience was a lot calmer than it sounds.
And we always seemed to arrive at a certain spot at lunchtime.
So here I am limbering up for lunch, 12.00 on the dot, Ricard imbibed, bottle of red lined up. Note the building top right on the other side of the river. It was ages ago that it came to me that GMP stood for Grands Moulins de Paris. Over the years I’ve read a lot about flour and bread in Bordeaux but I was amazed to realise that this was that very famous mill. It was built in the early 1920’s (burnt down and rebuilt by the end of 1924!). I had always assumed it would have been totally outdated long ago and converted into luxury apartments.
But I just thought I’d Google it and was really surprised to find the place is still fully operational, mills mainly local wheat, produces its own blends, trains and franchises bakers, produces huge quantities of flour.
Sort of thing I would have liked to have told Sue …
If you’re interested, there’s a very informative article about the mill on a blog called Invisible Bordeaux
