Massif Central, France

The Causses is a limestone plateaux with green fertile canyon valleys. It is at the southern end of France's Massif Central. It is a vast and largely unspoiled territory with amazing scenery. For us there were 3 highlights: Millau Viaduct (world's highest bridge), Gorges du Tarn, and the Roquefort cheese caves.

Millau Viaduct

Loving most bridges and being fans of Lord Norman Foster's other architecture (British Museum, Hong Kong Airport, Bundestag in Berlin) we were excited to visit the world's tallest bridge in Millau. It has a structural height of 343m and is a 7 pylon multi-span bridge. It is not only beautiful with its needle pylons reaching for the sky but is also considered an engineering marvel.

Gorges du Tarn

A canyon formed by the Tarn River near the beginning of its journey to the Atlantic Ocean is nearly 53km long and 400-600m deep. Over millennia the river has eaten its way through the limestone plateau. The gorges are flanked by rocky bluffs and outcrops, some of which are undercut, some of which are tunnelled to enable vehicles to drive up the valley.

Part way along the gorge is the village of Saint Enimie. It is on the river and once had a Benedictine monastery. The monks terraced the surrounding hills for agriculture. It wasn't until the early 20th century that a road was built, meaning that monks and farmers no longer had to transport goods in flat-bottomed small boats in and out of the canyon.

The drive up the canyon was spectacular.

Roquefort-sur-Soulzon

A small grey village situated on the shady side of a crumpled limestone outcrop has a single main street. On that street most of the buildings are in a state of decay with a few exceptions and these mostly belong to cheese producers.

The cheese is made from unpasteurised milk from the Lacaune sheep. To every 5000L of milk 4g of naturally occurring Penicillium Roqueforti mould is added. Holes are mechanically pressed into the cheese and they are placed on a salted cheese rack in the cave to mature. The salt disappates and is replaced by the airborne mould. Maturation can take up to 6 months. The cave had a nice cheese smell. It was not overly pungent.

The mould is grown on a piece of soughdough bread in the cave. When the bread has entirely turned to mould (approximately 12 weeks) it is then bottled. It was great to see.

The success of the blue cheese derives from the air flow in the cave. There are thousands of fissures in the rock which create high volumes of air flow and constant humidity and temperatures in the cave.

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