Roquefort and Lastours

Jake and I spend one day close to home in the depths of head cold misery.  We did go into Realmont to the Swing Bar café for its internet and herbal tea.  And I attempted to make a tarte tatin with mixed success.  I got the wrong kind of pastry dough – whole wheat pie dough instead of puff pastry dough, and the pan I cooked the tart in leaked most of the caramelized sugar out.  But it still tasted good! Margaret had make a big pot of chicken soup the day before, so that was perfect in our condition.

lizard at the local Grayssac cemetery near the chateau

We were not about to miss the group trip to Roquefort the next day though.  It’s a lovely 2 hour drive to the northeast from where we were into the mountains.  Societe is the biggest producer (and the brand you are most likely to see in the US).  We took their tour because you go through the caves where the cheeses are aged.  The distinct taste comes from Penicillum roquefortii.  Societe has isolated 3 strains to produce 3 varieties of Roquefort.   Other producers have other strains that give their cheeses a unique taste.  All true Roquefort comes from Roquefort, France.  The cave temperatures and humidity levels are controlled by fleurines, openings in the caves that allow fresh air to flow through.  Jobs you can have include the person who controls the fleurines, cheese ager, and mold producer.

We had lunch at what seemed to be the only open restaurant in town located in the vaulted brick area below a building.  Their specialty was buckwheat crepes filled with different fillings.  Mine had ham, cheese and walnuts.  Jake got another specialty which seemed to be part mashed potato part melted cheese served with a sausage. 

On our last day in France we all went south through the Black Mountains.  We drove to Carcassonne, but because of where we parked we basically had 10 minutes to tour the old city.  The city is quite impressive from the outside, but the interior is crowded with shops selling stuff and tourists.  We weren’t too disappointed to drive back into the mountains to Lastours.  In fact, we’d really recommend most of a day just to visit Lastours.  Our group had a reservation at Le Puy du Tresor (the well of treasure), another Michelin starred restaurant.  We got there at 1pm.  Lunch ended around 4:30 pm. The food was really good, but I didn’t want to miss hiking up to the ruins of the four castles on top of the hill so I left after the 3^rd course. 

Carcassone

Lastours

Lastours

arrow slit

The courses I had were a lovely poitiron squash soup with a mustard cream sauce, followed by a cepe (bolete, a mushroom) tartlet in puff pastry with some baby vegetables.  Some got a fish course of very rare salmon.  We all got a course of lamb served with some other baby vegetables.  You’ll have to ask Jake about any other courses!  We all agreed that the food was just as good if not better than the Toulouse restaurant, but the service was slow.

The hike up to the castles was steep and rough, but lovely.  The four castles are arrayed along the spine of the mountains all within easy reach of each other.  I never really figured out why 4 were built.   There are also the outlines of walls of a medieval village.  I would love to go there in spring because the hillsides around the castle are covered with iris.  Swallows wheeled around one of the castle towers.

The drive back along a narrow mountain road went through some picturesque little villages and long stretches of oak and chestnut forest.  The chestnut’s leaves were turning yellow and drifts of spiny nuts lay along the roadsides in places.