into Corinne from Auvergne Rhône-Alps Tourism and told her of my plight. She understood at once, “Leave it with me. I will make some enquiries”.
Two weeks passed, until, one morning I had an email from Corinne!
‘I tried to find a pyramid-shape cheese covered in ash, made in Auvergne. I found one last Saturday, it is a goat cheese, it does exist’.
My heart raced as I read her reply. But then came another email from my French ‘Sherlock Holmes’, this time with a photograph: “Dear Michael, … there is a cheese in the centre of the picture which is the one you are looking for, in La Fromagerie Nivesse cheese shop in Clermont-Ferrand and the cheese is a raw milk goat cheese, from the region of Courpière, not far away from Clermont-Ferrand. The name of the cheese is Le mont de Courtesserre”.
Eureka! I’d been right all along. My lovely did exist, just an hour and a half from where I’d had my first-and-only-taste.
I began to study the photo ‘Sherlock’ (aka Corinne) had sent. It was tantalizingly ambiguous. Taken from directly above, it showed nine cheeses, the central one being square and ash-covered.
As I puzzled over it, a sinking feeling came over me. This didn’t fit with my ten year-old memory. Yes, it was obviously a goat’s cheese. Yes, it was dusted with ash. Yes, the texture and rind looked right, but the distinctive volcano shape just wasn’t there.
Now in a panic, I contacted ‘Sherlock’ expressing my doubts. She explained that the overhead viewpoint didn’t show the volcano shape of my ‘chosen’ (as she so charmingly called it). It was like holding an identity parade from above. Phew! ‘Elementary, my dear Watson’ (to misquote Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)