Jeannine & Roger's French Cheese Odyssey

Mirepoix and Montségur - 28th May

The above is what happens when you go out for a Sunday drive and leave the car in the 37 degree heat while you attend a flea market; the car's poor GPS got heatstroke. Problem solved - it got shade and we got a holder for our tourist guide of Mirepoix.

We went to the bastide town of Mirepoix to find some geocaches in the old town centre thinking it would be quiet on Sunday, a day of rest. However our plan was foiled because the local Cartophile Club decided to hold an event. The most common definition of a Cartophile is a person who collects postcards, maps or collectors cards.
Today the special tent set aside for them had postcards, coins, stamps, LPs, and books. We perused the antique and tourist shops and decided the best bargain was to be had at the ice-cream stand. We were able to do 3 out of the 4 caches, number 4 was found but couldn’t be retrieved from its position by the city gates.
Mirepoix isn’t technically a bastide as the fortified town was destroyed by a flood in the 13th century and rebuilt.

The last visit on our Sunday drive was to Montségur to see what is the most famous of the Cathar castles, a symbol of Occitan resistance and the last bastion of the Cathar church. It stands at an altitude of 1200m on a rocky promontory.
We didn’t make the climb as it had been raining and the ground had turned to mud, which does not bode well for jandal-wearing pilgrims. Also, loud thunder had started. Fearing another round of drenched clothing we quickly did a geocache among the nettles and left. However before getting to the car a couple stopped me to ask how long it took to get to the top - what part of jandals and slippery ground suggested I had just run to the top and back?!

By time we got home, brushed off the mud and made tea it was 8.15pm. As we are leaving this city on Tuesday our meals are based around fridge-clearing, so sheep’s cheese was on the menu.

Cheese Experience No.37 - Eating cheese after 7:00pm I believe in the old wives tale that eating cheese after 7.00pm causes you to have vivid nightmares resulting in insomnia. So, does that make French people nightmare dreaming insomniacs factoring in how much cheese they eat and that they don’t start their dinner until after 7.00pm?

No because science has proven that:

• Cheese has vitamins and nutrients, such as amino acids, which promote the release of serotonin, which in turn encourages the body to relax
• Cheese is high in calcium which reduces stress and stabilises nerve fibres, therefore relaxing the brain
• Cheese is a protein, which satisfies the appetite promoting continuous restful sleep, no midnight hunger pains
• The best cheese however to eat before bed is cottage cheese as it has all the properties above

Darn I ate sheep’s cheese, looks like I will be counting sheep to get to sleep instead.