Jeannine & Roger's French Cheese Odyssey

Puygiron, Châteauneuf-de-Mazenc & Le Poët-Laval- 5th May

Another three beautiful small villages marked off the list, this time East of Montélimar.

Puygiron is listed as a town to stop at merely for a rest because there is nothing to see there, except a 300 year old mulberry tree. We visited, and as the nursery rhyme goes, we went round the mulberry bush, but not on a cold and frosty day, the temperature is rising.

Châteauneuf-de-Mazenc we went to see the 14th century fortified village, did a multi-stage geocache which showed us the old buildings and of course ended on top of a hill. Photos below are: views over the Valdaine Plains and lavender on the plains, the flowering season is mid-June to mid-August, guess we are too early.

Le Poët-Laval is a medieval town where most of the buildings of significance were destroyed either in the French Revolution or one of the many Wars of Religion. There is one Protestant Temple in town that survived the Revocation of Edict of Nantes. A lot of the region suffered from the revocation whereby Huguenots were persecuted and their buildings destroyed. They had the option to convert to Catholicism, go to prison or flee the country.

Essence of France Photo Challenge No.6 - Citroën Deux Chevaux 2CV, a small 2-cylinder, 2 horse-power car produced in France from 1948 to suit the rural social class and those on low incomes. It was actually designed by Michelin to increase their profits in 1937, however the small issue of a war got in the way so production was deferred.

Cheese experience No.14 - Picodon A local Ardeche cheese made from goats milk. In Occitan language it means spicy, to me stinky. You need to eat it quickly after it has aged or the rind gets bigger and the centre harder; as the photo shows below it is already small enough, so eat fast or get more wrinkly rind. The accompanying item on the plate is for size comparison and does not indicate a strange diet.
Useless trivia: In 1996 French astronaut Jean-Jacques Favier took 14 Picodons on the space shuttle Columbia, therefore making Picodon the first cheese to circumnavigate the globe.