Valley Cheesemakers is all about sharing our love of cheese and showing others how easy it is to make your own cheese at home.
This means that, when we get the opportunity, we will attend other cheesemaking workshops so we can broaden our knowledge and experience of different cheesemaking techniques and learn from other cheesemakers.
So when the opportunity came up to join a cheese tour to France, why would we say no?
The tour was organised and led by Graham Redhead of Cheesemaking (https://cheesemaking.com.au), who is based in Brisbane and runs cheesemaking workshops across Australia. Rosie had attended Graham’s workshops and the itinerary looked great so, with little convincing needed, she and Glenn were booked on the tour for May 2023.
The tour ran for eight days and was fully booked with 10 ‘cheese tourists’, most of whom had also attended Graham’s workshops.
We started our tour of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region of France in Dijon, a medieval city full of beautiful architecture, history, and of course a polar bear statue in tribute to François Pompon, a famous sculptor who worked for many years in, and was seen as a son of, Dijon. We explored the food market, and the day was the start of tasting so many wonderful flavours through wines and food – and yes moutarde – with a highlight being cooking ourselves a three-course French meal at a local cooking school.
The rest of the tour did not disappoint as we ventured further with bases in Les Rousses, in the Jura Regional Nature Park, and Château-Chalon, often cited as one of France’s most beautiful towns, which meant we could travel around these areas for our cheese visits.
Our highlights included:
- Visiting small and medium sized artisan fromageries where fresh and matured raw goat or sheep milk cheeses are made. We were able to see the process from milking of the animals through to tasting the delicious cheeses produced, and at some small farms we were able to assist with the cheesemaking processes.
- Seeing a mobile milking process, where the milking machines go to the cows in various paddocks, rather than the cows going to the milking buildings.
- Sampling and buying from a fruitière, a Cooperative Cheese Dairy, where many award-winning cheeses are manufactured, including the famous French Comté, Morbier and Raclette, and visiting their incredible, and large, cheese storage areas where cheeses can mature for years.
- Watching Comté being made in the traditional method of using a large copper pot over a wood fire. This method means that heat is regulated by moving the pot on and off the fire to retain an even temperature. We can assure you that Comté produced using this method of cheesemaking is delicious.
- The use of a smaller copper pot cheesemaking method, with electricity rather than an open wood fire used to heat the milk.
- We were in Raclette heaven one evening as our meal was at a restaurant that only serves Raclette, with each table having their own coal burner cheese melting equipment – so you melted your own cheese to go with your meal – best toasties ever!
- Meeting the Pyrenean Mountain Dog used by one dairy to protect the goat herd.
- A visit to several caves which store thousands of wheels of cheese on wooden racks for the many years that are required for affinage, or maturing, which is a crucial aspect of cheesemaking.
- A tour of the home of Louis Pasteur in Arbois – which fits nicely into the world of cheesemaking.
- Street and food markets full of small fromagiers offering their local cheeses.
- And we popped over the border to Switzerland for lunch by Lake Geneva.
Throughout our tour there were also visits to vineyards, and the obligatory wine tastings, as well as many alfresco lunches sampling a variety of cheeses and local foods. Being driven through the countryside was also a highlight, as a passenger it was so good to be able to sit back and enjoy the scenery and small towns we passed.
Would we do it again? We sure are! Stay tuned for details of our next cheese tour in the Normandy region in 2024.
Want to learn how to make your own cheese and dairy products?
Valley Cheesemakers offers Cheesemaking Workshops in Kangaroo Valley.
Get in touch by email info@valleycheesemakers.com.au or visit our website at www.valleycheesemakers.com.au.
Rosie Johnson