The lower slopes of the Rhone valley are rather too parched to result in good wines, so the locals have found something else culinary to excel at: cheese. The dry grass and low, scrubby bushes that grow here comprise a veritable banquet if you're a goat and the shallow, round Picodons produced from the local herds' milk are made using natural, traditional methods, and are justifiably famous for being delicious. There's a number of varieties, some of them involving olive oil, bay leaves, herbs and onions, but they all have a nutty, salty, spicy flavour in common (hence the name: picodon means 'spicy' in Occitan) and are good in salads and a local type of cumin pate as well as with French bread and a good slug of wine from somewhere else – which is exactly what you'll be offered if you go to Saoû, where they enjoy a Fete du Picodon for a weekend every July and mingle it with their annual Summer village fete. Expect a traditional market, celebrations of local folklore, live music and far more gourmet delights than you can hope to cram into one belly in two days.

Written by  larapiegeler.

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