For some reason I was in the mood for a brebis, but the one that I pointed to, my cheesemonger told me, wasn't yet ready to eat. That's why I adore him. Instead he steered me to this Le Sounal, pictured at right, which was soft and gooey and ready to eat.
The Le Sounal is a raw sheep's milk cheese, which means that it cannot be heated to more than 40 degrees C. It is strong and stinky. Note the brown rind around the cheese's edge. It's bark from a fir tree and shouldn't be eaten, but the other parts of the rind are edible.
The town where Le Sounal is produced, Hyelzas, boasts only fifty inhabitants, and the entire region, while beautiful, is one of the least populated in all of France. That sounds like one great place to visit.
What do you think? Is a road trip visiting the cheese producers of France right up your alley too?
--Tracy Schneider
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