Day Tripping in Beaufortain.

We ventured down the valley today, what with it being a Wednesday and day off. Conditions in Val were looking pretty grim with high winds, covered peaks and the odd snow flurry so off we went in search for blue sky down the Valley.

We stopped in the village of Seez for a much needed breakfast stop, Seez is tiny but with bakeries galore. We tried out the 'Salon de The' which boasts it's bread is cooked in a wood oven. Typical little French place complete with cow print table clothes and lamps with alpine skiers on, the pastries filled the big gap in our stomachs though and we were set for the journey to Beaufort.

Beauforts claim to fame, is of course, Beaufort cheese, a speciality here in the Savoie region. There's a fromagerie which is open to the public where you can see the cheese being made, it also has a small museum/display all about the cheese. A trip downstairs will reward you with aisles of huge rounds of cheese, they really are massive, quite smelly though. Two different kinds of beaufort cheese are produced, one being the winter version which is made from the milk produced by the cows during their period underground, the other being the summer version when the cows are free to roam the mountainsides and munch away happily on alpine flowers. I believe both varieties are excellent, many people prefer the summer version though.

Being a town which produces cheese, it's no surprise that it features heavily on the restaurant menus. We went for lunch in the busy and popular 'Restaurant du Grand Mont' (so called I presume after the mountain). We'd been eyeing up the huge slabs of Beaufort tart which were being served alongside masses of salad, we foolishly assumed these were main servings, how wrong we were, they were just starters as we realised when fellow dinners polished off their plates, only to be brought another plate with even more food on.
We managed to get our waitress to swap the meat options of the 'Plat du Jour', for beaufout tart, this then came served with salad, dauphinoise potatoes, chips and dessert. We were in our element and thought this a total bargain at 12 euros each. Unfortunately for us, the servings defeated us and by the time dessert rolled around, we were both full, figured dessert couldn't be skipped though and force-fed ourselves creme brules and creme caramels. It was all excellent. Not quite sure how the other diners managed to eat so much, was quite extraordinary.

Through fear of falling asleep after too much food we promptly paid the bill (which came with a complimentary boiled sweet and sewing kit (??!!!)) and set off to walk off our food.

Beaufort is a lovely little town, at 750m above sea level, it gets snow, enough to go cross country skiing, then off course there is downhill skiing in the local mountains nearby.

We went on a cow hunt to find the creatures responsible for making the town famous, couldn't locate any though, obviously all underground until spring comes again. However, we did find the blue skies that Val had been lacking in the morning, it turned out to be a stunning day and well worthwhile!

Beaufort cheese is also made in Val at our local farms and can be bought at their small farm shops.