Catching a Rainbow

The Loire River named after the silt it produces in such great quantities, wends its way from its source in the southern part of the Cévennes highlands to the Atlantic Ocean near St Nazaire.
The Loire, the longest river in France some 10,000 Km long drains more than a 20% of the country and flows through some of the most fertile and productive areas of Europe let alone France.
To the West, bordering the vastness of the Atlantic, one finds the Pays de la Loire or the Land of the Loire. The name is a confusing moniker for this area of France; as it only comprises a few départements through which the river snakes, and is only one of the 26 regions of France as a whole.
However, the region of Pays de la Loire not only includes the ancient département of Loire Atlantique, once part of Brittany; but Brittany proper lies only a few miles north of the River crossing at St Nazaire.

The valley of the Loire is the home to some of the finest cheeses in France, particularly goat cheese. Names such as Crottin de Chavignol, Pélardon des Cevennes, Pouligny Saint Pierre, Sainte-Maure de Touraine Selles, sur Cher Valençay, and the Chabichou du Poitou are just a few, all of them covered by an Appellation d’origine Contrôlée, all of them great cheeses but, why did none of them make it across the river to Brittany and why does Brittany have no cheese today?

The last statement may cause concern for some very fine artisan cheese producers in Brittany, who on a small scale and local basis make some very fine cheese…but it is a sad fact that not one AOC cheese is made in Brittany let alone a goat’s cheese with the same classification.

Brittany, a peninsula, surrounded by the sea and the ocean for most part; has a strong affiliation with both. It is perhaps that Brittany has such a tie with the sea, that no real relationship was forged between it, the cow or the goat. It is true that Brittany makes a great deal of butter much of it speciality mixed with sea salt, but only a small percentage of the milk is transformed into cheese.

On visiting Brittany one admires the rocky coast continuously battered by wave and wind, its gentle cliffs descending abruptly to the mistress of Brittany…the sea. The regions history, dark, always connected to the deep, its music even the paint laid on stretched canvas, all have a connection with the Ocean. Pirates, Corsairs, fishermen. A people a language a way of life all seem to face seawards. This may account for why cheese has been neglected.

Brittany with its rolling low hills, soft rains and green grass should be fertile ground for cheese production, but it may have been the low hills which decimated cheese manufacturing prior to the middle ages. Roc Trevezel, the highest point in Brittany is only 384m above sea level.


Many of the most famous cheeses and cheese producing areas of France are located in remote highlands, in out of the way places away from normal trade routes and historically un-affected by outbreaks of Bubonic plague- Brittany has no such places.
In the 1300’s there was a huge outbreak of plague accounting for a loss of 25% of the French population. The Plague was known to follow trade routes, and Brittany had a major route from Rouen to Rennes and to the Western Ports.
The Ports of Brest, Morlaix and Roscoff also had contact with Ireland and Great Britain and thus completed the circular spread of the plague from France to England and back to France.
It is possible that the lack of cheese in Brittany was caused simply by the knowledge of cheese making dying out in the middle ages. This theory is further strengthened by the fact that many cheese in France, including Brittany were and are still made within the confines of Abby’s and Monasteries, they themselves normally isolated, enclosed, possible protected from the ravages of the Black Death, not by mountains or remoteness but by walls.

The cheeses that exists in Brittany today are mainly Trappiste cheese made in Abby’s, such as:
Abbaye de la Joie Notre Damme, a trappiste cheese made in the style, of Port du Salut.

L' Abbaye de Campeneac, another Abby cheese descended from the cheese of Mayenne, Entrammes, Port du Salut. Although today the Abby specialises in biscuit and chocolate production rather than cheese.

L'Abbaye de la Meilleraie,

Le Curé ou Le Nantais.
A cows milk cheese made south of the river Loire, so no longer in Brittany, created by a vicar from the Vendee.

Le Montauban-de-Bretagne
Is a variety of Saint-Paulin made in Ile-et-Vilaine.

Le Saint-Agathon
No longer exists but was made on farms around the area of Guingamp

Le Saint-Gildas
A rich cheese 75% fat content made from cows milk.

Cheese yes all of them made in the style of Port Salut or St Paulin, Trappist cheeses…none of them famous, none readily available and not one having an Appellation d’origine Contrôlée.

So why did goat cheese not cross the river Loire north into Brittany?
(To be continued)