June 20, 2012: Domaine Perraud and award winning goat cheese!

On Friday, we went to the countryside surrounding Cluny. We stopped by La Roche De Solutre, which is a large rock formation. It supposedly has a wonderful view from the top, but since it was rainy and foggy in the morning, we were unable to go to the top to see. We then went to Domaine Perraud and took a tour of the facility to discover how wine is made, from vineyard to bottle. We were also able to taste wine that was still in the process of fermenting, from the stainless steel tanks and from the oak barrels!

 The machine used to press the grapes

 Sonia stirring the sediment in the wine in the oak barrels

The stirred wine from the barrel!

We then had a picnic lunch, and it was absolutely delicious! We were finally able to sample all of the meats, cheeses, and fruits that we picked up at the supermarket the day before.

We then went to visit the Bourdon’s Goat Farm, where they make award winning goat cheeses. We first met the goats (which were extremely adorable) and saw how they milked the goats. 

The goats!!! How cute are they! They were popping up as soon as we walked in, and one of my classmates, Wei Jie, remarked that "It's like whack-a-mole." We all laughed so much at that!

Then we went to sample the three goat cheeses laid out for us with some white wine. The first one was a very fresh goat cheese, which had only been aged for a day. It had a very mild goat cheese flavor and was extremely creamy and soft. It also was very white throughout the cheese. The second goat cheese was aged for two days, and it had a slightly yellow rind starting to form and was less moist than the first cheese. It also had a much stronger flavor. The third cheese was aged for 7 days, and it had the strongest flavor of them all. It also had a bluish rind on the outside, from the Penicillium mold. They were all extremely delicious and paired very well with the white wine.

Afterwards, we headed back to Cluny. On our way there, we visited the chapel at Berzé-la-Ville and the château de Berzé.

 

In the evening, we went to dinner to Le Cloître, and I had a Ratatouille galette (a buckwheat, savory crepe). For dessert, I had sorbet de Pomme(apple sorbet).

After dinner, we saw that there was a little market and a band playing that was very good. They played some Frank Sinatra tunes, and it was very refreshing to hear something so familiar. We also met some of the townspeople and the engineering students from the school in Cluny, and everyone was so nice to us! I definitely felt very much at home and felt very welcomed to this new town.