France
Salers
Lava-stone turrets above green pastures where dark-red cows match the volcanic rock.
The cows are dark red, the turrets are dark grey and the pastures between them are an impossible green. Salers is a medieval market town in France's Auvergne built from volcanic stone, sitting almost a thousand metres up on the flank of the old Cantal volcano above meadows where the cattle that carry its name have grazed for centuries, and the cheese that carries its name tastes of every wildflower in those meadows.
Salers grew rich as a market town and then a town of nobles, and its grey lava-stone houses with their corner turrets, mostly of the 1400s and 1500s, ring the main square where the statue of Tyssandier d'Escous, the man who fixed the red Salers breed, reminds you whose country you are in. The cheese is made only from mid-April to mid-November, when the cows are out on the summer pastures and the grass and flowers flavour the milk — unpasteurised, pressed, aged for months until the rind cracks and the paste turns to earth and hay. Truffade, the mountain dish of potatoes fried with young tome until it stretches, was born on these slopes. The road climbs from the town to the Pas de Peyrol and the Puy Mary, the sharp pyramid of the Cantal, with a panorama over the whole volcano from the summit path.
Solo
The market in the lava-stone square sells Salers cheese, Cantal sausage and gentian aperitif — the town's produce in concentrated form. Walk to the Puy Mary summit for the volcanic panorama and return to a truffade supper.
Couple
The volcanic-stone turrets glow warm in evening light while the red cattle graze the slopes below — the colour match between architecture and landscape feels designed. Cheese tasted in the cellar where it aged adds the terroir.
- Dark-red Salers cows graze volcanic pastures beneath lava-stone turrets — the animals match the architecture.
- The cheese is unpasteurised, made only while the cows are out on summer pasture, and aged for months — each wheel tastes of the flowers they ate.
- Turreted mansions of grey lava stone line the main square — built on cattle wealth and still standing on it.
- The Puy Mary is a short drive up the pass — the summit panorama covers the whole Cantal volcano.
Salers cheese — unpasteurised, pressed, aged in the cool of the cellars — tasting of wildflowers and earth.
Truffade — sliced potatoes fried with young tome until it stretches in strings — the dish born on these slopes.
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