Cheesus!

Like I said, the Cantal is a big cheese producing area. There are cow pastures everywhere you look, perched on the sides of mountains and on nearly every available flat spot. Many of the cheese producers are part of a tourist circuit and they invite visitors to watch the cows being milked or the cheese being made (more about that later).

This way to cheese!

Almost every town in the vicinity of Salers has at least one producer and the signs like the one pictured above help direct you to their farms. There's a map given out at tourist offices and by cheese vendors in the markets that help you to locate the various producers. The people in these parts are very proud of their cheese, and rightly so. Cantal is among my favorite cheeses.

The closest producer to St.-Chamant.

The cheese in Cantal is a hard cheese made naturally in two very similar varieties. Basic Cantal is made all year round. Salers is made only during the non-winter months when the cows are grazing on live grass and the process is more strictly controlled. I should also say that the beef from Salers steers (a recognized breed of cattle) is highly prized.

This was nowhere near a church.

I was slightly taken aback by this creepy vision at the end of the road where our rental house was, just as you leave the town of St.-Chamant. I couldn't help thinking, as I passed it, "Look! It's Cheesus Christ!"