Come for the scenery, stay for cheese and wine: spring in France’s Massif Central | French holiday

The flavors of this soil transfer to local cheeses, for these are in these fields that the surprise cows of salers yield and then milk for the salers of cheese traditions (cows will only produce milk if their calves are there). Semi-hard cheese has been thought of to date from the second century and one of the most popular in France, with fewer than 10 producers left.

The villages around here are the photo-postcard of the beautiful-the-salers, small Saint-Bonnet-De-Salers and Salers themselves-a disturbing series of gray stone buildings with cattle chasing the fields around it, jangles of cowbells carrying a breeze. Everything was quiet but for some hikers passing through the middle square, though it wasn’t long before my tour -around leading me to the heart of the action at Le P’tit Comptoir, a wine and cheese where eateries on the large boards of local charcuterie and cheese, and wine quotes. Madame gives me a table and I hit a small dish, postponed a glass of wine until the end when I reached my destination, Pailherols, an hour and a half away.

The Japanese route takes me to one of Cantal’s most vertiginous peaks, Puy Mary, but I first stopped just outside the sales to stand on Japanese day and take a look at the heart of the glacial valley. It crushed the farms and hedgerows, which the Craggy Peaks did not notice as the shadows were creeping down, swallowing hammers in their darkness. Below me on the hill are two BuonSmall stone huts that are a local feature. The cows built them that, as their cattle sank to the higher pasture, would dwell at them every day, making cheese and survived the local specialty La truffadean uninterrupted conclusion of stringy Tomme Cheese and sliced ​​potatoes – a hearty and maintain a dish for those who work in this rugged land.

From there, the route walked up and up to the triangular form of Puy Mary ahead of me, the rust -colored rust with a dotted snow lips. The narrow skirts on the road around it, with a steep fall to my right. It gives me palpitations, but views are worth; The route continued to more valleys and peaks, and my knuckles were white from careful steering, until I finally got to the Pailherols after dark.

In the winter, this village of 152 residents is a cross-country skiing hub, but in the spring it brings hikers and road trippers that check with cozy Auberge Des Montagnes and his hotel brother Chez Marie. Owners, Vincent and Marie, welcomed me like a long-lost friend, and soon I sat in a wooden beamed dining room primed for Marie’s Menu of locally raised, roasted pork and blond lentils from the Saint-Flour committee. “Just wait until you see the view in the morning,” said the vincent pointless as he poured me a glass of volcanic wine. “Your room will look over a small lake and it’s amazing.”

The next morning was bright and sunny, and the lake scene was really great, but Vista was better as I was driving away from the village. I stopped on my tracks by sight of the wide meadows with a carpet with yellow dandelions and cowslips. There is no cloud in the blue sky, and the only building I see for miles around is a Buon;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; An important reminder of when people’s lives revolve around the full -time tag -warm and cheese -making.

It is only half an hour in the attractive town of PierRefort, where the new flowering wisteria crawls into its gray stone houses, and the middle square boasts a statue of volcanic stone of a horn Aubrac Bull-the breed that makes beef and milk for laguiole cheese, also made in the Buon. Locals boast these bulls (which they say “wear eye makeup” because of the white fur around their eyes) that in the early April La Fête des tersons celebrations the animals were parade in town, and there was food, music and hobbies. The restaurant in Hôtel du Midi has the best menu in town, thanks to Chef Gilles Charbonnel, who runs the place with his two sisters. My dish of soft beef with artichoke and potatoes is excellent – filling and hearty, but with a development of sophistication.

If Charbonnel was broken for local harvest for his menus, so did Aurélien Gransagne, Chef at Hôtel Sodade and Serge Vieira Restaurant, with two stars of Michelin, both at Chaudes-Agues, an additional 30 minutes to the south. However, food is not the only appeal of this small town on the edge of the Aubrac Plateau – here is also where you find the hottest European springs. Although the volcanic volcanoes are far behind me, their 11M-year legacy is still bubbles under the scene and surfaces on 32 springs across the town.

The easiest to find is those in the source du par, which I discovered through an arch from the main street leading to market square. At the edge of the pavement, La Fontaine de la Place Au Beurre is a moderate faucet that dribbles water at 65c (150f) to a rock trough. I put my fingers on the steaming water and reminded that for the entire immersion the Caleden thermo spa with jets, pools and spa treatment was only five minutes away.

My curiosity leads me more than just the way to find the other spring, this one is a scorching 82c (180f) and sputtering from a spout on the wall to a canal, releasing a slight sulphurous whiff.

The closure time for the nearby Geothermia Museum of Geothermal Energy and Thermalism (therapeutic use of Hot Springs) is approaching, so I instead follow a route that explains, through information boards, points of interest related to town history and how it has achieved the heat of this volcano. In the Pierre Vialard area, I learned how, from 1332 and older, the houses were built so they could use geothermal heat and in doing so one of the first central European heat system was created with about three miles of pine pipes made of pine.

Before dinner, I drove the hill above town to see it from the extraordinary setting of Serge Vieira Restaurant, built around the ruined Tower of the Chateau de Couffour. The restaurant is closed until late May, but the view from its yard is worth the route as the scene will actually open-along with the Chaudes-Agitues tucked into the valley below and the Cantal scene living with trees full of bright and pink flowers.

I returned to the hotel sodade, where I spent the night, and tasted the finely chef gransagne dishes – steamed asparagus with mousseseline and poached egg, followed by soft pork, fennel puree and confidence in the carrots. When I see an edge of La truffade In the menu, I can’t stop ordering it; My chance to discover – to see the Buon And the flowers of this curious volcano – a dish served here for centuries.

The journey was provided by cantal tourism; For more information see auvergne-destination.com. Amuse Bouche: How to eat your way around France by Carolyn Boyd has been published by profile (£ 18.99). To support the caretaker and the observer will order your copy at GuardianBookshop.com