Époisses: The King of Cheeses and the Château of Madame de Sévigné
Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, France
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200
XP
+100 France
= 300 total
1 day
Époisses: The King of Cheeses and the Château of Madame de Sévigné
200 + 100 XP
Époisses is a soft cow's-milk cheese with a washed rind, rubbed with marc de Bourgogne as it ripens, and the phrase king of cheeses has long been attributed to Brillat-Savarin for it. It almost disappeared until Robert Berthaut, his wife and a few producers revived the traditional cheese in 1956, and it has had an appellation d'origine contrôlée since 1991 and a protected designation since 1996. In the village, the château of the Guitaut family, where the marquise de Sévigné kept her own room, stands inside two walls and moats.
Required Activities
1
of 5
Buy an époisses in the village from the Berthaut works that brought it back, and look hard at the rind before you cut it: that ivory-orange to brick-red comes entirely from the Brevibacterium linens raised by repeated washing, because colorants are strictly forbidden in the appellation
2
of 5
Walk the ground between the château's two rings of wall, where the village itself was built, pick out the échauguettes standing proud of the outer rampart, and notice that every tower has been cut off level with the roofs and the whole south side is gone — the Revolution's compromise with the family
3
of 5
Inside the château, find the room the marquise de Sévigné kept for herself as Guillaume de Guitaut's guest, and the painted ceilings of the salons, including the music room and the vestibule, decorated after the Revolution
4
of 5
Find the 17th-century dovecote in the park, with its revolving ladder and close to 3,000 nesting holes cut into the walls
5
of 5
In the church inside the walls, now the village's parish church, find the wall painting of the Dit des trois morts et des trois vifs — three young gentlemen stopped in a graveyard by three dead men
Buy an époisses in the village from the Berthaut works that brought it back, and look hard at the rind before you cut it: that ivory-orange to brick-red comes entirely from the Brevibacterium linens raised by repeated washing, because colorants are strictly forbidden in the appellation
Walk the ground between the château's two rings of wall, where the village itself was built, pick out the échauguettes standing proud of the outer rampart, and notice that every tower has been cut off level with the roofs and the whole south side is gone — the Revolution's compromise with the family
Inside the château, find the room the marquise de Sévigné kept for herself as Guillaume de Guitaut's guest, and the painted ceilings of the salons, including the music room and the vestibule, decorated after the Revolution
Find the 17th-century dovecote in the park, with its revolving ladder and close to 3,000 nesting holes cut into the walls
In the church inside the walls, now the village's parish church, find the wall painting of the Dit des trois morts et des trois vifs — three young gentlemen stopped in a graveyard by three dead men
Before you go
Époisses is at its best between May and October.
The château grounds are open all year but the interior only in July and August. The moats, the bridges, both enceintes, the ground and every building between them, the outbuildings, the church and the château were all classified as historic monuments on 12 June 1992, and the park has been a protected site since 1946. The château is still lived in by the same family.
The park inside the two walls and moats is open every day of the year, 9am to 6pm, but the rooms are not: the house is shown without booking only from 1 July to 31 August, every day but Tuesday, 10am to midday and 3pm to 6pm, and on a booked guided tour from April to June and September to October. There is nothing from November to March. The cheese is made and sold all year, and the village has it in the shops and at the dairy.
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Challenge Location
XP Breakdown
Challenge XP
200 XP
France country bonus
+100 XP
Potential total
300 XP
Country bonus earned on completion of your first challenge in France.
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