Jeannine & Roger's French Cheese Odyssey

Gordes - 10th May

Gordes - Today we ventured down into the region of Provence, known for its Mediterranean climate and Mistral winds.
Provence and Vaucluse are areas that we visited in 2007 covering just about all of the tourist places such as Marseilles, Nice, Avignon, Nimes, Toulon, Orange and so forth. This time I wanted to visit some of the smaller touristy places that were possibly out of the way for us last time.

First on the list was Gordes, an ancient town (revived of course) that sits nearly 270 metres up on a steep promontory. It is a mission getting there on steep narrow forest roads, although due to the terrain and fires caused by the dry climate and winds there aren’t that many trees, especially not mature ones. Gordes was packed with tourists and metered car parks so we did our best to see the buildings, chateau, church, a geocache and a tourist shop before the free parking period was up.

Wanting to lunch away from the tourists we went to the National Park of Mont-Ventoux’s Col des Trois Termes, altitude 574 metres, and had our lunch in a howling gale. Well to us it was a gale but to locals in Provence it is the everyday Mistral winds of 90kph. There are lots of tourists who bike up here for some unknown reason; maybe they are emulating the Tour de France which has gone over this mountain a few times but not this year.

The next little tourist attraction was Abbaye Notre-Dame de Sénanque, probably one of the most photographed places used to advertise Provence. Postcards show the magnificent building with rows of purple lavender flowers in front; today we just had to view the beginnings of a great scenic photo.

One of us took a tour of the Abbey, which was currently being restored

Our last stop was Venasque, beautiful village with another chateau, a Catholic church, and a geocache. The bush photo below is Roger obeying the rules of geocaching and being discreet, well at least camouflaged.

Cheese Experience No.19 - Bleu des Causses I was hoping the Abbey would produce their own cheese but unfortunately they were only selling somebody else’s. Therefore today’s cheese experience is Roger’s Bleu des Causses which has no visual or aromatic appeal to me and is now permeating the inside walls of the fridge. This special stinky cheese is matured in the fresh moist air of natural caves created by calcareous scree, that’s calcium chalk or limestone. [Ed - In a religious context this can also be known colloquially as 'God Food']

Essence of France Photo Challenge No.7 - Provence is known as the land of plenty; the warm climate and soils aids the growth of aromatic plants, venerable vines and olive trees. For centuries peasant farmers have toiled the soil under the relentless sun, now they have air-conditioned machinery, to produce good quality products such as lavender, thyme, rosemary, olives, grapes, honey from the nectar of the herbs, wine and breads from the olives, herbs and aged grapes. To support the locals we bought olive bread and herbs of Provence.

For those worried about bio security I will empty and wash the tin before returning home. The pink ball in wild thyme is a story for another day.