University of Bordeaux

This course on French gastronomy provides an overview of how the food and wine culture became such a distinctive feature of life in France. It addresses both the subjects of food and wine, with a view to giving as informative a perspective as possible. The course covers the evolution of French food culture as well as regional cuisines. It also gives special attention to wine areas as well as the rituals around food and wine. The course thus relies on historical facts, sociological data, and economic figures but is also be an opportunity to get as close as possible to French gastronomy with field trips, dinners, and tastings. The perspective is both French and foreign as it welcomes students’ experience and ideas about French gastronomy.

Through examples of natural resources (minerals, oil, water, and rare earths) this course assesses the current situation of these resources at the quantitative level. It demonstrates various and often competing uses of these resources by our societies, and the current quantitative and qualitative problems in different regions of the world. The course investigates the tensions (past, present, future) that exist around these resources due to their distribution in relation to need, and sometimes due to their scarcity. It highlights the complexity of managing these resources, as will the complexity of the solutions to be implemented.