This is one of our favourite events of the early summer. The tiny hamlet of Mas Rolland, where we go to buy goats’ cheese, fills its narrow streets with producers’ stalls selling chicken and pork, cooked and ready to eat for lunch straight away at the tables provided, or packed to take home and cook there, shell fish, bread, charcuterie, olive oils and tapenade, cakes, cherries, jams, honey, and of course goats cheese.
Long tables are laid out for hundreds of people to eat lunch in the sun or shade. We’d ordered the paella made by the people at Neffiès who grow saffron and spent several hours with four friends and several bottles of very good local wine enjoying our lunch, starting with a plate of charcuterie.
We were entertained by music from the jazz band Mosaïque
and after lunch an explanation of how the goats’ cheeses are made:
It was a very enjoyable way to spend Sunday!
olivesandartichokes 
That’s a great market. I’ve been to my farmers’ market this morning and the vegetables are fantastic, but you don’t get the European charcuterie. I have noticed an English cured ham and meat stall occasionally, but the samples I’ve tasted were disappointing. There is a pub near me though, (the Bull and Last) which does outstanding, made in house, charcuterie, so it is possible – I live in hope 🙂
Good charcuterie is possible in Britain – occasionally I used to buy very good local cured ham in west Wales – but unfortunately it’s not common….yet. The Bull and Last sounds like a good place to eat!
I’m a total voyuer when it comes to your blog especially the food posts, so
as I will be in the Herault part of the Languedoc in September I tried looking up Mas Rolland on my very detailed Atlas Routier in the hope of visiting then,but to no avail, so can you possibly give the name of the nearest town which I can then use as a guide to my further exploration of the Languedoc.
I try to make a list of new places to visit every year and so far have not once been dissapointed, even when the weather has been horrid, to me it’s still one of the most beautiful unspoilt parts of France.
I hope you enjoy your holiday in the Herault! The Mas Rolland website is:
http://lafermedumasrolland.com/ To get there you take the D146 from Gabian and follow it up into the hills until you reach the hamlet. Good luck!
Thank you very much found it easily with your help, could you also help in recommending a cheese producer must at least buy some while I’m there, just the anticipation is making my mouth salivate.
There are goats’ cheeses at Mas Rolland and other small goat farms in the area. The nearest famous cheese is Roquefort, a sheep’s cheese – see http://www.roquefort.fr/cn/discovering/the-cheese/ for information about it.
I’m so happy to have the blog, with more pictures, to supplement the Blip! The picture of the band answers the question I had–whether the fellow was playing his instrument with one hand and holding the music with the other: and the answer is YES. I also love the hand holding the little round of goat cheese. You do eat well there!
What better way to spend your day. I just love events of this kind. Diane
Wonderful lazy hazy summer day:)
What a great day and you´ve gone and made me hungry again!
Now that’s a great way to spend a Sunday! I would have loved to have seen that cheese demo.