Auvergne cheeses : Auvergne cheese is an integral part of the culture and economy of this region. L'Auvergne manufactures a quarter of the production of PDO cheese in France.
The Auvergnats have been making cheese since they raised cows … As much to say, since the dawn of time. This dairy vocation, Auvergne owes it to the abundance and diversity of the flora of its meadows and high pastures.
Certain cheeses made in raw milkAs salers or cantal, are among the oldest known cheeses in the world. The trace of their existence dates back more than 2000 years. Cheese is therefore an integral part of Auvergne's history and civilization. From generation to generation, men have taken care to pass on their know-how and manufacturing methods.
This is how Auvergne offers an extraordinary plateau of cheese, all unique in their personality, just like the men and women terroirs from which they came.
With its 5 cheeses AOP, Auvergne is the leading French region to produce cheese fromProtected designation of origin. But the Auvergne cheese board also has many local specialties, whose unique and tasty accents, testify to the diversity of the terroirs.
Traditionally, all Auvergne cheeses had the generic name fourme. Fourme has the same origin as cheese to denote the shape of the cheese it is formed. It is thus possible to still hear about Fourme de Salers, Fourme de Saint-Nectaire, Fourme d'Ambert. Small peculiarity Gaperon, which is pronounced in Occitan gapaloun, takes its name from the gap, name given to the low butter which was at the base of the manufacture of this small cheese flavored withail (d'Auvergne) and Pepper (Moreover), mussel in tradition, in baskets en wood de juniper.
Auvergne is on the one hand a historic province and on the other hand an administrative region in central France in the Massif Central. Its inhabitants are the Auvergnats. The capital of the administrative region of Auvergne is Clermont-Ferrand, also historic capital of the provinces of Auvergne. The regional languages are Occitan or langue d'oc (in its Auvergne, Languedoc and Vivaro-Alpine varieties) and Bourbonnais d'Oïl.
The historic province distinguishes the Basse and Haute-Auvergne, Bourbonnais and Velay.
The administrative region currently comprises four departments:mix, Cantal, Haute-Loire and Puy de Dome.
Auvergne owes its name to the Gallic people of Arvernes, a powerful confederation of Gauls of which Vercingétorix (80 BC-40 BC) was the king at the time of the Roman invasion. His father, Celtillos, had been elected to this office before him and he had been executed by his companions for wanting to make it hereditary. Vercingétorix succeeds in 53 - 52 BC. AD the alliance of all the Celtic tribes around him, by obtaining "hostages" (sons or daughters of kings) from each tribe, guarantors of the loyalty and alliance of these tribes.
According to recent excavations by archaeologists, the capital of Arvernes would have been located between Gergovie, Corent, Aulnat and several other significant sites within a perimeter of 35 km, leaving to extrapolate a central population of 150 inhabitants and more than 000 inhabitants for the territory controlled by the Arvernes, allies of the Cadurques (Cahors).
A large part of the Auvergne region is covered by the Massif Central, a Hercynian massif dating from the end of the primary era which stretches over almost a sixth of the total surface of France. It is a high plateau (peneplain) interspersed with deep valleys. A volcanic episode occurred in the Tertiary and Quaternary. The most recent volcanoes are less than 8000 years old and form a group called the Chaîne des Puys. The north of the region (Allier) is a country of hills. The highest point in Auvergne, 1886 m, is located at Puy-de-Sancy in the Monts Dore massif.
Essentially mountainous region, with eighty volcanoes, Auvergne is therefore away from the historical axes of communication of France, such as the Rhone corridor or the Atlantic coast. This isolation persists today, despite the will displayed by the institutions to promote the creation of communication infrastructures crossing and serving the region. Such a situation has not been favorable to economic and urban development and isolation is one of the factors which have contributed to the stagnation, even the demographic decline of the region. This is why it is identified since the post-war period as being the central part of what is called “the diagonal of the void”.
In its mountainous part, Auvergne is above all a breeding region oriented towards milk production, the cradle of cattle breeds. salers et aubrac. It is an important region for the production of AOC cheeses with five specialties: bleu d'Auvergne, cantal (Young and In-between), Fourme d'Ambert, salers, Saint-Nectaire.
With 50 tonnes of Auvergne cheese annually, the region produces a quarter of French cheese production. AOC cheeses. We also manufacture in the territory of Auvergne Roquefort and Causses blue.