Jeannine & Roger's French Cheese Odyssey

Valence - 6th May

Today we had a Chateau, Roman ruins, medieval town and Cathedral free day. We went to the big smoke of Valence and two towns on the outskirts called Bourg-de-Péage and Romans-sur-Isère, purely to visit their parks and get a different perspective of Southern France for a change.
However first we had to attend the produce market in Montélimar. The stalls are well supported by the locals, especially the vegetable stands where you just fill a plastic basket with anything and let the vendor sort it, weigh it, and then tip it all into your shopping bag. We didn’t buy any produce as the large white asparagus don’t appeal to me and the artichokes seem a waste of time to throw most of it away and boil what is left to death. The strawberries are still quite pricey but smell delicious. You can buy bouquet garni, endives and rotisserie chickens where raw ones are dripping onto cooked ones.

Cheese Experience No.15 - Market Cheese At the market there were 6 cheese vendors. Most were large food vans selling any sort of cheese (see photo below). We learned from one of our landlords (and experienced in 2018) that they buy cheap and sell on for a decent profit. They also move the knife and cut off more than you asked for and then weigh it with a lot of thick paper.

The next picture below shows the local Picodon producer who gets a lot of local support, hence the reason I couldn’t get a front on photo. He sells his goat cheese only in rounds so there is no dodgy sales technique going on. He also sells them at varying levels of maturity for example there is 2 week old cheese where the rind has formed enough to hold its shape and 4 week old cheese that looks white and creamy like feta. The 2 week old rounds are the size of NZ Brie and the very mature ones are remarkably smaller due to the shrinkage process as mentioned in yesterday’s post; however they are still popular as some people prefer the sharper taste of the mature cheese.

Bourg-de-Péage: Bois des Naix Park is a 12 hectare, one-man project where some guy bought lots of land, cleared the swamp, dug drains and planted heaps of trees for the locals to have an urban park of trees and grass. The Council have taken over, installed a few ponds and concrete features that don’t really fit in with the creators dream; they probably think it distracts from the dump next door. When it is 33deg nothing will mask the smell of refuse.

Romans-sur-Isère: Saint Romain Park - The town is known for the production of shoes but managed to find a small space next to a cemetery to squeeze in a park with great views over the river.

Valence: Jouvet Park - The Park is not large but it is a nice retreat near the big shopping area of Valence. Like the other two parks we visited today, they are not flower gardens; they have walking paths, play equipment, grass, trees and picnic tables. However the lack of flowers doesn’t stop it being a popular wedding photo place, there were four brides who thought this was the ideal place to remember their hooped-dress occasion. Unfortunately one bride was too quick for me and left.