On a late-Winter morning we were headed South on a day trip to Vannes on Brittany’s south coast.
Along the motorway a little crossroad sign pointing to the East said “Rochefort-en-Terre, 20km“. Dave said, ah we’ll stop in there, I’d love to get some cheese. Sure. What I love about random travel is how things work out in unexpected ways.
In we drove, with great expectations of smelly old cheeses, but what we found was a tiny, quaint village with delightful old buildings. Easily found a park in the street, wandered around the place, marveling at the architecture, but also seeking out cheese shops.
As usual around France this time of year most places were closed up “for the winter” but we did manage to find a cafe. Then we spotted the tourist information office, surely they could talk to us about the much coveted cheese and point us in the right direction.
Enter the office, yes the attendant spoke English, so we asked her about the Rochefort cheese and why we couldn’t find any.
With an indulgent smile the lovely woman gently pointed out that we were thinking of Roquefort which is in the middle of France, and we were in fact in a Rochefort-en-Terre.
Of course as soon as she started telling us this I realised the different spelling and we both felt really silly. The lady handed us a brochure for the local area, which we sheepishly accepted, then found the car and got out of town.
We’re able to report that the tourist office woman told us we weren’t the first to get it wrong.
That kept us laughing all the way to Vannes and we still chuckle about it now. Sometimes we get things a little bit wrong and sometimes we get things a lot wrong.
Happy to say that Rochefort-en-Terre was a lovely little mistake and we were really glad we accidentally detoured through this delightful little medieval town. One of our maps states that Rochefort-en-Terre is listed at France’s most picturesque town and we’d agree with that.
Anyway, we can buy Roquefort at all the supermarkets, so no biggy. We’ll just have to come back to France some time soon to find the real Roquefort.
This Post Has 2 Comments
Looks like a fun place to visit. And thanks for your story of being humbled by being a foreigner looking for cheese!
Hi Neil and Laurie, thanks for commenting. Brittany really is a beautiful region and we loved every minute of our 2 months house sitting there. You really do have to laugh at yourself, don’t you, when you mess things up in a foreign country. Just adds to the experience!