Aveyron, the home of France’s iconic Roquefort cheese • FRANCE 24 English

Covering almost 9,000 km², the southern French department of Aveyron is one of the country’s largest. With its limestone plateaus and vertiginous gorges, the area is full of contrasts: just like its iconic cheese, Roquefort. The blue-veined ewe’s milk cheese – one of the oldest and most famous in the world – was born in this region. It became France’s first cheese with AOP (Protected Designation of Origin) status in 1925. Making Roquefort requires special know-how, from milking the sheep to storing the cheese in cellars. We take a closer look.

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Extending over 9,000 sare km Aon is one of France’s largest depart with its Limestone plateaus and vertiginous gorges the area is full of contrasts just like its iconic cheese brur the blue vein used milk cheese one of the oldest and most famous in the world was born in this

Region it inspired four friends from Aon to hop on their bikes for a day trip to set off on the trail of this king of cheeses it’s not so warm today but this is still a treat the scener is magnificent and we’re enjoying the fresh so it’s all good they’re pedaling around

A 60 km Loop called the first stage takes them to Alisa’s Farm hello hello hello hello welcome to her you’re on a family farm where we produce the sheep’s milk used to make rock for cheese now 75 at leise has spent a good part of her life with her animals

These UL lams were born in January so you can see what they’re like yes they’re very cuddly they bite too every week Alise welcomes cycle tourist for her used to charm oh they’re so cute I love having guests yes it’s a chance to promote our profession people come here to find out

A little more and we’re happy to tell them look at this one she’s biting my hair they like to be stroked these Lon use are milk twice a day we can press on how many use do you currently milk with this system we can milk 40 use at a

Time the pump here delivers the milk automatically to the milk tank Alise describes each stage of the milking process to her sometimes incredulous tourists they say goodness it’s a veritable laboratory so I say did you think we wore hats and clogs no we’ve evolved byebye thank you goodbye bye thanks

Alice but to earn a taste of the sheep’s milk cheese so where’s Rock for to the Northwest our cyclists have some work to do next up is Lalu and at the foot of this Massif lies the village of Roo this is where the seven producers of this legendary cheese have been based

For hundreds of years in the third floor basement of this thousand-year-old Cellar a Master Cheese maker watches over 6,000 maturing Rockall whose every secret he knows even the most ancient the rockfall legend tells the story of a famous Shepherd who abandoned his cheese and bread in a Cellar to run after a shepher

Returning to find his bread moldy and his cheese covered in fungus legend or not this is the mold that makes Roar famous penicilium rooti the fungus that gives the cheese its famous blue color now I’m observing the development of penicilium inside the cheese to check it’s all the way through and developing

Evenly and is it definitely then of course there’s the odor the sheep fold smell of sheep’s milk to keep the cheeses moist and fresh Nature has produced the perfect environment the huge Cliff overlooking the village acts as a natural air conditioner a vast network of underground tunnels links it to the

Cellers the air rushes into the cliff moves through a network of faults taking on moisture and cooling on contact with the rock so it arrives in our cellers cool and damp we rejoin our cyc tourists for a look around another Ro for Cellar so here we are in Gabrielle K’s

Oldest Sellar please stand over there after 3 weeks of maturation the process needs to be slowed down with tin foil keep the rockf from the air we now have to wrap it come on let’s all give a hand don’t crease it too much no no no you’re doing it wrong Oh wrong

Yes the thing about tin foil is that it’s manable so if you don’t overdo it you can gain a few millimeters once you’ve teased it up you can fold it over the top so should we taste this rock for We have three of them all different nothing like each other some mild some with more character our day Trippers now see their depart in a new light because Aon has at least as many faces as rfo has different Flavors