ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the cultural challenge of consumption and the protagonists’ abilities to speak and act outside of the institutional framework of cultural heritage. It draws on an ethnographic study conducted between 2015 and 2017 in grocery stores, butcher shops, delicatessens and shish kabob eateries located in the Saint-Emilion-Duras-Bergerac triangle, around the town of Sainte-Foy-La-Grande, department of Gironde. Research into new ‘ethnic businesses’ provides points of entry to understanding the profound transformations these rural areas are undergoing. Businesses such as halal butchers, Moroccan restaurants, shish kabob eateries and oriental grocery shops have flourished in the towns and villages of the winegrowing areas of the east of Bordeaux, between Libourne and Bergerac, in south-west France. Whether it is the Les cinq saveurs grocery store or the Arabesque restaurant, the decor can be read as ‘oriental’ and ‘French’, although with some nuances due to the subjectivity of the owners and their territorial anchoring.
