One of my favourite aspects of living in France, is eating French. That means eating lots of cheese. We have quickly slipped in to the French habit of eating cheese between main course and dessert.

(Our first cheese board clockwise from top): Fromage de chèvre (one day), Brie de Meaux, Fromage de chèvre (bien vieux), Bleu d’Auvergne, St Paulin.

I’ve always loved cheese. On my second trip to France, age 11, I noted all 97 different varieties of cheese we tried. Every trip to the supermarket or the marche was an opportunity to try something new – and note another regional specialty in the diary.

On our last trip to France, the boys discovered the delights of farm fresh goat cheese. On one trip to the Mas Rolland, near Pouzolles, we saw the goats returning from the hills, watched them being milked, then bought day old cheese. We bought five small rounds on our first visit and Tom ate at least two all on his own. We had to go back for more the next day.

So top of the list this trip was to find the closest goat cheese farm to Quillan. Today, with the help of the local tourist office, we found one, just two minutes’ drive from the town, on the edge of the neighbouring village. The farmer opened up for us, we selected three cheeses of different ages from his pantry, and paid. Bonus: as apology for almost over charging us mistakenly for four cheeses, he threw in a free one!

I suspect we will be returning to that farm – if we can get past the farm dogs again…