Feature Image: Goat Cheese Rolled in Edible Flowers - Lyon
During our recent Workaway experience in France, we were looking forward to an immersive cultural experience, and food and wine became an integral part of our adventure. The French are perceived to be a little arrogant about their food, and after spending ten weeks exploring different villages, towns, and cities—we don’t blame them.
Ancient civilizations embraced the holy trinity of cheese, bread, and wine—and this tradition continues today. It’s alive and well, and flourishing in France.
French Cheese
Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. What an obsession. An obsession for the French, and we’ve jumped on the bandwagon.
We’ve always been cheese lovers. Preferring a pungent cheese and a robust chutney, to a slice of decadent triple-chocolate layer cake to finish off a meal. It’s easy to make a meal centred around a cheese selection, and after investing in high-priced imported French cheeses when we lived in Los Angeles, we were ecstatic to see how inexpensive it was to indulge our passion for fromage at the local level.
We lost count of the number of different cheeses we tried. Each local area has the own variations of the national classics, and we bought cheeses from supermarkets, small cheese shops and market stalls. We favored soft cheeses: brie, camembert and goat cheese, but tried our fair share of hard and blue cheeses too.
Blue Cheese
We visited the Roquefort Cheese caves during our first workaway gig. It was off season and we were the only two people on the tour, so the tour guide gave the tour in her broken English—she did an engaging job.
We discovered the history of this famous blue cheese, and discovered that the cheese is injected with penicillin to cause the mold to form. Although France creates a lot of blue cheese, the Roquefort Society protects the name and it can only be used for cheese produced in these caves.
There’s been uproar about this heritage cheese producer in France, because the Society been bought by Chinese investors. French people we spoke to now no longer buy this quintessentially French brand, and favor one of the other roquefort cheese varieties. But roquefort isn’t the only blue cheese produced in France, and there are many more pungent but milder varieties available.
Goat Cheese
It seems like many restaurants in the US and the UK favor the strong, acidic-tasting goat cheese that hits your senses like wrecking ball. But we were pleasantly surprised by the range of mellow and smooth tasting goat cheese varieties in France.
During our visit to Lyon we explored the Halles de Lyon Paul Bocuse food hall—a mecca for foodies that had the most diverse collection of goats cheese. If you’re not a fan of goat cheese, it’s because you’ve never savored the delicate and smooth tasting goat cheese available in France.
Raclette
Our La Rochelle workaway host and her children introduced us to a dinner tradition they called Raclette. Which involved melting cheese under a grill and using the top of the raclette kitchen gadget to heat other ingredients. It’s an exercise in patience, as you wait for the raclette cheese to melt.
Pan/Grill for melting cheese for Raclette 
Raclette – pouring cheese on baguette
It’s similar to fondue except that you pour the cheese onto your bread, rather than dipping your bread into the cheese. I much prefer the raclette tradition. The name raclette actually refers to the name of the semi-hard wheel of cheese famous in the Savoie region of France. It’s heated and then the melted cheese is scraped off.
During our little weekend jaunts between workaway gigs when we staying in little self-catering apartments, the first thing we always bought was some local cheese and baguettes, to make sure we always had something for a morning nibble, afternoon snack, and late night feast.
That’s the beauty of cheese – it knows no time constraints.
French Bakeries
Bread is an integral part of French kitchens, and their quest for the perfect baguette or pastry borders on obsessive. Even the tiniest of French villages with no other services or shops, will have a bakery.
Baguettes
Not all baguette are created equal, and we ate our way around France hopping from bakery to bakery, and to discover there’s a discernible difference between an ok baguette, and a memorable one.
The most delicious traditional baguette was from a tiny village bakery in St. George where we spent our first workaway gig. It had a light and crispy crust, and an airy dough, making it feel guilt-free. Most bakeries offer a deal of buy two and get one free, but not this little village bakery, and we don’t blame them.
Croissants
This bakery also baked the lightest and flakiest croissants of our entire trip—and we know this because we ate croissants in every town, village, and city we visited.
We began a habit of beginning our day with a strong cup of coffee and a crispy fresh croissant. There’s no better way to prepare yourself for a day of sightseeing, than sat at a pavement cafe, people watching, and brushing croissant crumbs off your chin.
Ficelle Baguettes
It wasn’t till we got arrived in La Rochelle that we truly started to understand the differences in baguettes available. We discovered and fell in lust with Ficelle baguettes, which are about half width of a regular baguette. The crust is crispy and slightly chewing, and the dough was light and airy. An ideal serving for one for breakfast, but if you’re eating it with cheese and tapas, then you might need two.
Red Wine
Out of all the red wines we sampled, Bergerac became our go-to region. This region is in the southwest area of France in the Dordogne. We’d never heard of this region before, but maybe it had just got lost in the shadow of Bordeaux, which is about 100km west of Bergerac.
Bergerac has been a wine-producing region since the thirteenth century and exporting wines to England since 1254. This area was granted special privileges by King Henry III, which meant that the area was exempt from tax, and gave then the rights to transport their wines through Bordeaux to ship to England. How come this wine has been so elusive and I’ve never tasted it before?
Throughout history, Bergerac wines had been sold under the generic name, Bordeaux, because wine merchants and traders can priority to Bordeaux wines, but in the 20th century the wine growers in the Bergerac region established their separate identity.
We voted the red from the Villedart vineyard as our favourite. It’s a soft red with a delicate and mellow flavor, slightly fruity with minimal tannins. It has the robust look and body of a cabernet, but the texture of a pinot noir/merlot mix. Whereas Bordeaux wineries focus their attention on one or two wines, Bergerac estates embraced diversification, as they have the freedom to experiment because they’re not confined by the Bordeaux’s strict branding policies.
We were an equal-opportunity sampler, and tried many different reds in France, but our fallback option was always the Villedart.
Honorary Mentions
I’m including these honorary mentions as they’re great to accompany cheese.
At our first workaway gig I experimented making some onion chutney. I’m known within my social circle in Los Angeles for making Jamie Oliver’s Cheeky Chili Chutney, but you need roasted red peppers for that, and it’s a bit of a mission to sear them and peel the skins off. So I decided to buy a bunch of onions and make onion chutney instead.
French Onions
Mon Dieu! French onions are so strong, the strongest I’ve ever cried over. I wonder if this is why French Onion soup got popular here—to pay homage to the robust and aromatic onion?
Our Workaway host was an excellent cook and make us French Onion soup for dinner once night. I’ve never really been a fan of all those onions in a soup, but when in France…. I did love the cheesy topping and bread from the aforementioned bakery though.
French Leeks
I also made mushroom and leek pate for the first time, which was an delicious companion to the cheese and chutney, and guess what? Leeks are really strong in France too. The aroma and flavor was more reminiscent of an onion than a leek. Negating the need to add onions to my pate.
Mustard
If you’re a mustard fan you’ve probably tried the French Dijon mustard Grey Poupon, or something similar. It’s a bold thick mustard made from brown mustard seeds, and has an horseradish heat that lingers but doesn’t overpower with acidity because it’s made from white wine rather than vinegar like most other mustards. If you haven’t tasted it straight, then you’ll have had it in a classic fresh dressing that is made with a base of Dijon mustard.
I hadn’t encountered a spicy version of Dijon before. Just one taste and it’s adjusted my taste buds…forever. (spolier alert: spicy Dijon pairs perfectly with cheese!)
I’ve always been a mid-spicy mustard fan, and prefer whole grain mustard. But after being introduced and falling in lust with spicy Dijon, I’ve become a fan of the hot Coleman’s English Mustard that my home town of Norwich Norfolk, is famous for. Ironic, that I had to go to a different country, to embrace a classic product from my own country.
This trip to France introduced me to a new wine region I hadn’t encountered before, deepened our passion for cheese, and shattered our illusions that all baguettes aren’t created equal. Who knew that in this day and age, these three food staples still have the power to excite and surprise me!
Thank you France—you’ve broadened my culinary horizons.
What is the most memorably French Food you tasted? Find out what rocked our tongues and taste-buds during our recent #workaway adventure in #France. #TravelBlogger #Foodie Share on XRead about our 2020 Workaway and Travel Adventures:
- French Train Strikes won’t stop us in our tracks
- Toodling around Toulouse
- Exploring the Castle at La Couvertoirade
- Meandering around Montpellier
- Our Workaway at an 18th Century Flour Mill
- Chilling in Clermont Ferrand
- Our Workaway at an 18th Century Chateau
- Lingering in Lyon’s 1st Arrondissement
- Our Self-Guided Walking Tour of Lyon
- Making the most of Montparnasse Paris
- Our Workaway at a La Rochelle BnB
- Our Workaway at Ile D’Aix
- Video: Our Workaway adventure through France
- Our Memorable Food and Wine Adventures in France
- …. the rest of our trip TBD because of the virus – but planning Bordeaux, Lille, Bruges, Antwerp, and Amsterdam
Ah jeeeszes cheese! 😀
And this is just one of many reasons to visit France right, one of the BIGGEST reasons, that – and the wine 😀
I’ve never met a cheese I haven’t loved!
My son always complains about the smell in our fridge, accusing me of storing my dirty socks in the fridge becuse of the smell 😀
Open any French fridge and they’re proud of the aroma emanating from it. They embrace it!
Bread! Cheese! Wine! I’m dying to sample all of this stuff!! Seriously, these are some of my most favorite foods ever. I think I would like the French cheeses better than the bleu cheese though – I’m pretty particular about when I eat that variety. Nonetheless, I’m drooling over here now in the States as I look at our “Processed American Cheese Food” up for sale at the grocery store…
After 20+ years living in the States, it was a blessing to return to travel in Europe where they really know how to make cheese – especially the French.
OMG! A 10 week period spent enjoying the pleasures of food and wine in France? What I wouldn’t give for that experience! Like yourself, I am also a huge cheese fan and although having had fondue a number of times, this is the first time I have read or heard about the Raclette tradition, something which sounds just divine. Combining the various cheese varieties (we love soft, blue and goats cheese) with freshly baked bread would be heavenly. Totally agree that this could be enjoyed at any time of day and I hope to make it across to France in the future to enjoy a similar experience one day.
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Yes the Raclette was new to us, and we had it for dinner a couple of times. The host family we were staying with were fans of this way of eating cheese, so we were lucky to try this multiple times.
My mouth is watering from all these delicious pictures of cheese and bread!! France is definitely the place you want to go to pig out on cheese! Can’t wait to go back!
So much cheese … so little time!
I am huge fan of baguette with brie and spicy mustard! For some reason I’ve never taken to bleu cheese and never knew about penicillin injected to give the “blue” . I would love to return to France soon for a visit of the local markets and cobbled streets, and for some cheeses of course 🙂
I did feel a little differently about blue cheese after I found out about the penicillin … but one of our hosts made a mean endive walnut and blue cheese salad for us, and it was a perfect combination, and I just blanked out the idea about where the mold came from!
This brought back memories….my first exposure to Raclette was in Austria….didn’t know they had it in France. I remember the smell..so strong but so delicious. Growing up in the 70’s I remember my parents having the fondue dinner set; not sure it made it out of the cupboard to often…a short lived fad but for sure I don’t think they were using raclette. Oh but the croissants of France; a whole new level to any croissants I’ve ever had in Australia…it must be those French cows that make amazing butter.
I think we had that fondue set too… probably only used twice. The clean up was too much effort. You haven’t had a croissant, until you’ve had one on French soil. I think you’re probably right. It’s the butter!
Great post! I went to France when I was 10 years old and my strongest memories are still the food!!! Minus the wine of course!
When I did a school exchange trip back in the seventies, they served red wine in the high schools for lunch. It was watered down, but it was still wine! Us visiting Brits, didn’t get much work done in the afternoon, but lessons were fun.
All of my favourite things wrapped up in one post!! I was supposed to be in France in May, so crying inside…cannot wait to have fresh French cheese, bread and wine when we go!!!
We were sad too… we had to leave France earlier than planned, there was a lot more cheese and wine to sample.
I miss France and all its food so much! My mouth is watering after reading your post. I can’t wait to go back there and try the red wine you mentioned.
I’m usually more of a white wine drinker. But when in France… it had to be red. And it was delicious.
Ahh cheese, I’m drooling already! But lucky me, I’m going back home in a weeks time so will be eating cheese to me heart content!
I was actually telling a colleague how much I miss the food and I read this!
We knew we were going to love the cheese before we went, but the choice and flavor surpassed our expectations.
I love that bread, wine and cheese combination! What a great experience to stay in France for so many weeks. I would love to taste that yummy-looking French onion soup. The Raclette for pouring cheese sounds very interesting, but could be trying your patience waiting for the cheese to melt. Nothing to beat the light and flaky French croissant with your morning coffee! 🙂
Yes Jan, raclette was an exercise in patience. But well worth it. The heat affects the flavor, and it tastes so much better when it’s completely melted and sticky.
I miss France. I have a friend in Paris, so I visited this city often. I love French cheese and wine. You had an amazing trip. I would love to visit Roquefort Village! I love Dijon mustard also.
I’ve started putting Dijon on everything … it really adds a kick to any dish.
I have only been to France once and it was just for a few days in Paris, so I would LOVE to go back and spend more time travelling around the country and visiting smaller towns and cities to truly experience all of the food and culture 🙂
We’d only visited Paris before, so it was a real treat to get away from the cities and explore some of the smaller towns and villages. It was a memorable trip, and I can’t wait to go back to explore more.
Oh my gosh, the cheese in France – just incredible. It’s so funny since not long ago I bought a Camembert with edible blossoms so when I saw your first pic, I was like: Hey, how come she has a picture of my cheese?! I also enjoy those ‘scary’ ones with all that mold or ash on it – so that you first think: Am I really supposed to eat this? Yes, you are! It’s a delicacy!
Cheese is so versatile. Dress it up or keep it simple. So many different ways of enjoying it.
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This is so very interesting and of course, I’m hungry and thirsty now and need a snack! haha! I’m really intrigued that the blue cheese is injected with penicillin and I’m happy to know this because I’m allergic to penicillin. This all just screams France and I can almost smell the bread. Yum, Yum, Yum!!!! Thanks for the truly delicious and engaging and interesting article!
Cheese and wine are synonymous with France … you can’t come here without indulging in both. And indulge we did!
OMG this post! Yes! I want to just spend a few weeks in France eating cheese, fresh baguettes and drinking wine. That’s it. Saving this for when I can go! Your pictures make me want to leave now! (darn covid!)
I know .. darn covid .. we had to cut our trip short because of it, and there was wine we didn’t get to drink and cheese we didn’t get to eat. So that means we have to have a return trip to make up for it.
Oh French bakeries are my absolute favourite 🙂 I miss those classic boulangeries so much! Have you tried flan? 🙂
We ate all sorts of baked goods, but I don’t think we had flan. My fave was the little sweet pastry treats with fresh berries and the patisserie cream like a custard in it. I could eat those every day.
Incredible read! And the photos are making us crave travel even more…Mark can live on bread and cheese ( and did in the Netherlands). Thanks for sharing.
I’m with Mark … lock me up and feed me bread and cheese .. I’m happy!
My husband is a cheese fanatic and so definitely gonna show him this haha
So is mine, I have to tell him to “step away from the cheeseboard” for his own safety!
Such an interesting read! Can never say no to fresh croissants and baguettes, that’s for sure. Left me craving a trip to France after this!
The French know what they’re doing when it comes to making the most buttery croissants known to man (and woman)
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Wow! Such a long period of time spent savouring all the culinary delights of France! That sounds like a perfect holiday idea to me.
We were lucky to have such an extended trip, and so many opportunities to enjoy France’s regional food and wine.
It didn’t take very long for the thought of French food and drink to bring back sensory experiences for me. I could almost smell French baguettes (my weakness). And your picture of French onion soup made me drool. We loved the cheese selection. However we stayed away from the pungent ones! And the spicy mustard. Wine, cheese and baguettes were a staple for picnic meals in France.
It’s easy to have an enjoyable French inspired picnic with just three simple ingredients. That’s what the French do best … keeping is simple, but keeping it good!
You had me at cheese! There is nothing better than a local cheese, a baguette and some wine when there. I was missing France before reading your post, and now even more so. I long to visit Lyon, as I hear it is a gastronomy heaven.
I’m with you … when somebody mentions cheese – my ears and appetite pick up!
It’s when I read this type of post that I realize how fortunate I am to live in France 🙂 When you love food and wine, it’s well … close to paradise. In the Loire Valley (where I live) there are 2 great specialties : wine and goat cheese. Of course, you can mix! Not sure the cheese (e.g. Valençay or Sainte-Maure-De-Touraine) is easy to find outside France, but the wine should be easier (e.g. Vouvray in white and Chinon for reds). Bon appétit!
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So many cheeses we encountered were for the first time – so I don’t think they have long legs that straddle oceans – The French seem to want to keep they’re stinky and devious cheese to themselves! Thanks also for the wine recommendations Malcolm!
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Those croissants and baguettes get me drooling. I’ve been to France but I never knew about penicillin injected to give blue cheese. It’s a must-try next time I’m there.
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Travel is great .. you learn all sorts of new information! The Société, whose caves we visited, create their own brand of penicillin for their cheese.
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Hi Jay,
Oh my goodness! Impressive article dude! Thank you so much
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Thanks, I can’t believe that a non-Aussie knows what wattle seeds are! I’m so grateful for your comment, Mimi!
Thanks for sharing
Thank you for sharing the picture. After seeing these pictures, I really want to travel to France, where to taste the delicious food and red wine.
Thanks for sharing so wonderful ideas.
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My mouth is watering after reading your superb article! Combining the various cheese varieties (I love blue and goats cheese) with freshly baked bread would be heavenly. Totally agree that this could be enjoyed at any time of day and I hope to make it across to France in the future to enjoy a similar experience one day.