Located in the area known as "Les Penaix" - now rue Jean Zay - this model farmhouse was designed by Charles Gravier.
Mayor of Vesse (formerly Bellerive sur Allier) from 1892 to 1894, collecting milk for resale in Vichy hotels, Charles Gravier strove to obtain superior products. He sought and found a way to sterilize milk. He discovered phosphated natural milk, which promotes bone development in stunted children, and then powdered milk, from which he made milky cocoa and milky chocolate. Charles Gravier even added an ice cream factory, sterilized using absolutely pure filtered water from a pond fed by the Sarmon... Charles Gravier went bankrupt in 1894, and the model farm was sold at the bar of the Cusset Civil Court on July 11, 1894. Bought by Jean-Baptiste Bardet of Clermont-Ferrand, the dairy and creamery activities were continued until the end of WW1 by the two farmers, brothers Francisque and François Bartassot.
(Sources: municipal library and Jacques Corrocher (album du temps passé)).
The model farm is now the Médiathèque of the town of Bellerive sur Allier.
(Sources: municipal library and Jacques Corrocher (album du temps passé)).
The model farm is now the Médiathèque of the town of Bellerive sur Allier.
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