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Saint-Marcellin Cheese Festival In France

Saint-Marcellin cheese is so special that the namesake town has an annual festival to celebrate. Join us at the Fête du Saint-Marcellin, a celebration with all the pomp and circumstance that only the French can do.

Have you heard of Saint-Marcellin cheese? You may recognize it from local cheese shops or from the cheese counter at American food markets like Whole Foods or Wegman’s.

Saint-Marcellin Cheese Wheels
The Saint-Marcellin cheese produced in Saint-Marcellin France is a wondrously oozy cheese. | Image: ©2foodtrippers

Saint-Marcellin is the cheese packaged in the small inch deep clay pot. Its white flour-like rind gives it a similar appearance to a small piece of brie while its pasty consistency easily yields to a butter knife, providing a spreadable consistency that’s perfect for a sliced baguette.

Overall, the cheese is an inoffensive, mildly flavored, pasteurized cheese that you can serve to family and friends in a pinch at a party or small gathering.

One problem: the Saint-Marcellin cheese you see in an American food store is not the legendary Saint-Marcellin cheese sold in France. In fact, it’s not even close.

Saint-Marcellin Cow
The cows take a prominent role at the Fête du Saint-Marcellin. | Image: ©2foodtrippers

Produced in the town of the same name, France’s Saint-Marcellin is a raw milk cow’s cheese aged for a minimum of 12 days. Once ready for sale, the cheese possesses a firm cake-like consistency; however, the cheese’s paste slowly liquifies and matures with age.

An older, properly aged round of Saint-Marcellin is an oozy wonder with the kind of flavor complexity that only comes from a raw milk product.

Legendary Chef Paul Bocuse loved this cheese as do many chefs throughout the Rhone-Alpes region. Many in the area celebrate the Saint-Marcellin cheese as the best local product.

Thanks to luck and the generosity of a new friend in Lyon, we got to join in the celebration at the annual Fête du Saint-Marcellin.

Fête Du Saint-Marcellin Cheese

Group Photo at Fete du Saint-Marcellin Cheese
We couldn’t resist a photo-op with (left to right) Michèle Bonneton, Sebastien Maucarre and Michel Thevenot. | Image: ©2foodtrippers

The Fête du Saint-Marcellin is quite an event. Dovetailing with the Saturday public market, the festival celebrates all things related to Saint-Marcellin cheese. There are cows. There are lumberjacks. There are wine samples. And, most importantly, there is cheese.

Article Clipping from Le Dauphine

As was our experience in Lyon, the town of Saint-Marcellin welcomed us with open arms and warm hearts. We connected with Sébastien Maucarré, sommelier and owner of Les Carmes in Saint-Marcellin. We also met Monique Blanchet, a journalist who interviewed us on behalf of Le Dauphiné Libéré.

Michel Thévenot – Citizen Of The World

Michel Thevenot
Michel Thevenot, Citizen of the World and Cheese Connoisseur | Image: ©2foodtrippers

When you travel, it’s important to accept the kindness of strangers. Sometimes, in places like France, those strangers may not even speak your language, or very little of it, but these are times when you have just ‘let life happen.’ During our time in Lyon, we were fortunate to gain the friendship of Michele Thévenot.

Many journalists hire ‘fixers’ to guide them through the foreign landscape and provide the kind of access that only a local can provide. Thévenot does not speak much English, but, through the magic of technology and Mindi’s memories of high school French, we were able to communicate and understand each other.

Living just north of Lyon, Thévenot sells ‘Bon-Bons’ and possesses the kind of passion for French food and desserts that’s typical of the Lyonnaise. In other words, he’s a great guy.

As shown in our video, Thévenot was our personal tour guide. He drove us to the town of Saint-Marcellin, guided us through the amazing Saturday public market and facilitated our attendance at the wonderful festival of Saint-Marcellin cheese. Without him, we would not have navigated the festival so well, much less known about it in the first place.

Thévenot proudly proclaims himself to be a ‘citizen of the world’. In our humble opinion, the world could use more global citizens like Michel Thévenot.

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About The Authors

About The Authors

Daryl & Mindi Hirsch

Saveur Magazine’s BEST TRAVEL BLOG award winners Daryl and Mindi Hirsch share their culinary travel experiences and recipes on the 2foodtrippers website. Since launching the site in 2012, they’ve traveled to over 40 countries in their quest to bring readers their unique taste of the world.

Disclosures

Article Updates
We update our articles regularly. Some updates are major while others are minor link changes and spelling corrections. Let us know if you see anything that needs to be updated in this article.

Funding
We self-funded our trip to Saint-Marcellin.

Original Publication Date: July 8, 2016

Megs

Friday 3rd of November 2017

This festival completely takes people to a whole new level!! So good, that somebody doesn`t forget to write about such an events! Tx a lot

Annika

Monday 11th of July 2016

This post is all about cheese overload. I hope I can also join the cheese festival since I also love to be cheesy. LOL.

Susan Schwartz

Friday 8th of July 2016

Adore your video!!! Makes me hungry right now!

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