Bridges & Cheese

This was what our day trip from Avignon was all about: Bridges and cheese. The cheese was in between the bridges.

Bridge: Pont du Gard*
An aqueduct built in the 1st century AD by the Romans, the Pont du Gard carried water from Uzès to Nîmes, 31 miles away. How much water? About 5 million gallons a day. The river, Gardon, is serene, as is the parkland on either side of it. At least the slaves building the aqueduct had fresh air and beautiful surroundings.
*OK, this isn't really a bridge, but a pedestrian bridge was built alongside it in 1743 and that still stands too.

Cheese: Roquefort
This was what the day was all about. It was a good 4 hour drive from Avignon, but it sure was scenic! Roquefort-sur-Soulzon is a town on a mountain in Aveyron. We stopped at the even smaller town of Nant for lunch as soon as we realized that lunchtime was coming to an end and we had a long way to go before we reached Cheeseland. Nant was the kind of place you would want to stay if you were looking for an off-the-beaten-path town in the south of France, but you wouldn't know to stay there because no one has ever heard of it. Lunch was very tasty.

Once we made it to our cheese heaven, we did a tour of the famous caves. Famous caves? Oh yes. Here is the legend of Roquefort cheese:
A shepherd (not the same one who built the bridge in Avignon) was enjoying some sheep curd on rye bread when we stopped for a rest in a cave, as you do. He forgot his sandwich on a ledge, but came across it the following year. I guess he was really friggin hungry because he ate it... and it tasted great! Make what you will of the legend, the bottom line is that the cheese is wonderful.

"How do they make said cheese, pray tell?"

I'm glad you asked! They bake loaves of rye bread at high temperatures so that the outside burns and the inside is uncooked. Then they places these loaves in the caves beneath the town. The caves are a constant temperature all year long. Something about the humidity and temperature is magical, and the mold that forms on the bread is really great. They sprinkle the mold into the ewe's curd, pack them into wheels and let time do its thing. Once the cheese is ready, they cut the wheel in half to prevent it from maturing/fermenting any further. The tour we did was completely in French, so I learned all that by lip-reading. There are only seven producers of Roquefort cheese. In order for a cheese to be "Roquefort", it has to be made in the caves below the town and the sheep have to graze within a set region. Picky stinky cheese, I love it!

Bridge: Millau Viaduct
Now THIS is a bridge! The highest bridge in the world... taller than the Eiffel Tower and only 125 feet shorter than the Empire State Building, it opened in 2004. The bridge crosses the valley of the River Tarn. It's a real beauty. Dana and I love crossing bridges, so it was a treat to drive over... if only we had been able to walk over it! We didn't plan on driving over it, but Dana got us dreadfully lost and we had to cross it to save time. Thanks Dana!

Bridges and cheese.