Cheese and Bridges

At the recommendation of a friend, we decided to go on a road trip to Lodève for the museum, Roquefort to see the caves where the cheese is made and then to Millau to see the Millau aqueduct. Well, things being what they were and slow starts, etc. but the time we headed off at 11am, I knew that the museum and caves would both be closed from 12-1, so suggested we go straight to Millau.

What  a massive architectual site:

If you look closely, you can see the a car on the right hand side of the bridge.

And then we drove to Roquefort. 

For those who don't know, this cheese is somewhat like champagne in that the true Roquefort is ONLY made here, and has been for 2000 years. There are four large cheesemakes, two of whom offer tours, and one of those offers a English handout so you can follow along with the French guide. We visited one of their 15 cellars and this one is 11 storeys high and has rock faults, providing fresh air to the cheese, on every floor. 

Each of these discs/loaves is about 24cm in diameter and in the cellar we were in, there were 300,000 loaves of cheese, at a time, and 1,400,000 in an entrie season. And then we got to taste some, which was lovely to have three of the cheeses side by side and really be able to taste the difference.

By the time we left Roquefort to head home, it was too late to go to Lodève so that will be another day's excursion.