Fête des Fromages - Rocamadour, France

This Sunday, May 11th, the village of Rocamadour hosts its annual Fête des Fromages. This apparently is the largest cheese festival in the south of France. When we visited Rocamadour, which is located in the southwest, just north of the city of Toulouse, we had no idea that it’s fame includes a large cheese festival. Casting back to our experience at Rocamadour, it’s hard to imagine how this little village could host that many visitors.

The Fête des Fromages features cheeses manufactured by 40 producers from 15 regions in the south. These comprise 15 producers of goat cheese, 15 of cheese made with sheep milk and 10 producers that make cheese from cow milk. You’ll be able to sample and purchase a range cheeses from the open market. Operating hours are:

Saturday: 3 pm to 7 pm, and
Sunday : 10 am to 7 pm

There’s a cheese competition and no doubt the judging will be a pretty intense and serious affair. To keep visitors entertained, there’s plenty of food, wine, music and entertainment. The festival is an opportunity to chill out and enjoy French food and wine, as well as explore Rocamadour’s ancient history.

Between 4pm and 5pm on Saturday, a herd of goats is shepherded from the valley to Causse. This region’s specialities include goat cheeses, fois gras, pâtés truffés (truffle pâté), confits et magrets of duck and goose, roquefort cheese and lamb. During your visit you can also stop at the local farms to purchase some fresh farm produce. Most of the farms will sell directly to the public.

This village has a cheese named after it, i.e. Cabécou de Rocamadour or more commonly known as “Rocamadour“. Since being awarded the AOC label in 1996, the producers have abandoned the name Cabécou as it’s too generic and hence today the cheese is just called “Rocamadour“. This also enables them to differentiate Rocamadour from the many Cabécou that exist. Rocamadour can be eaten at the various stages of maturation. When it’s between 1 and 2 weeks maturity it has a subtle acidic aroma and a slight nutty taste. As the “affinage” progresses, these characteristics mature and become more pronounced.

More about Rocamadour tomorrow!

Helen

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