France Discovered: Food and drink

Avignon wine centre

April 2016 will see the opening in Avignon of the Carre du Palais, a wine centre where you will find everything you could possibly want to know about the wines of the Rhone valley.

Located in the old France Bank, on Place Square, the centre will contain a wine school, a wine bar serving the local AOC wines, a gastronomic restaurant and a larger bistro, a boutique and a hotel/residence, all overlooking the surrounding historical monuments.

Roquefort cheese

South of the Parc Naturel Régional des Grands Causses, at the foot of Combalou mountain, a unique village awaits. It is here, within the rock, that you will find the cellars wherein the famous Roquefort cheese slowly matures.

Unmissable, a visit to the cellars plunges you into an underground maze that formed naturally after the collapse of Combalou mountain.

Converted into vast cellars ventilated by fleurines, natural cracks that allow air circulation underground and maintain a constant air temperature, they contain thousands of 'cakes' of Roquefort, tended by the refining masters, owners of know-how and tradition dating back over a thousand years.