Wednesday 13th June 2018
As both of us are cheese lovers, including Roquefort, we felt a visit to the very place of its origins was worthwhile.
A 27 km drive away through the Parc Natural Régional des Grands Causses is the village of Roquefort sur Soulzon.
Our drive was delightful, as we were able to take in more views of the majestic Millau Viaduct and enjoy a few more typical villages of the Aveyron area, such as Saint-Georges de Luzençon and Saint Rome de Cernon.
We passed the tourist office on our way into the village but parked further up the road in a sign posted car park at the highest point of the village, at the foot of the mountain of Combalou, where the cellars of the Roquefort Société ® are located.
We timed our visit perfectly, as on making payment for the cellar tour, 6€ each, we were informed it would begin in 10 minutes.
Note, the tour is conducted in French and a paper version of the script is provided in your preferred language which was on occasions a little difficult to read in the darkness of the cellars 😉
Our tour included learning about how the collapse of the Combalou Mountain gave rise to caves, which became connected to the open air through gaps in the stone, known as fleurines.
These fleurines ventilate the vast cellars naturally and have been fitted with windows and doors that can be opened and closed to control the temperature and humidity levels inside the cellars.
These naturally ventilated caves were adapted for the purpose of cheese making and this has continued for centuries and only cheese ripened in these caves can be named Roquefort.
Our one hour tour concluded with a cheese tasting session.
As well as the opportunity to purchase some things Roquefort related!
A reasonably priced tour, although if you only want to purchase cheeses, the cellar shop is open to the public, as is La Cave des Saveurs, where you can enjoy homemade cuisine created from local products at midday under the vaults of a 17th century cellar.
We thoroughly enjoyed our first cheese cave visit and learned some interesting information, as well as how to properly store cheese and that a sweater or a lightweight jacket is a definite on any future visits 😉