A small flat disc of raw goat cheese from the Cévennes foothills, AOP since 2000. Young it is chalky and lactic; dried it goes hard and intensely goaty, and Montpellier kitchens grill it on toast over salad.
Where to eat it: 3 restaurants across 1 city.
Goats have been kept on the schist and limestone slopes of the Cévennes for as long as the region has been farmed, because the terrain suits nothing larger. The pélardon is made from raw whole milk in discs of about sixty grams, salted and left to ripen for a minimum of eleven days. Kids are born in late winter, so the first cheeses of the year appear in spring and the flavour tracks the season: mild and milky in April, sharp and dry by autumn. The AOP granted in 2000 fixed the area and the method, and every covered market in Montpellier now carries at least one producer selling it at several stages of drying.
Common allergens: Dairy
Halles Castellane is Montpellier's iron-and-glass central market on Rue de la Loge, 25 stalls of cheese, oysters and produce a minute from the Comédie.
Tip: Several stalls shuck Bouzigues oysters to eat on the spot with a glass of Picpoul; go before noon for the full spread.
Halles Laissac packs 24 traders under a rebuilt rotunda on Place Alexandre Laissac in Montpellier, oyster and tielle counters pouring wine into the evening.
Tip: Thursday is the night to come, when the halles run until 23:00 and the central tables turn into one long apéro.
The Marché des Arceaux lines Montpellier's Saint-Clément aqueduct on Tuesday and Saturday, up to 80 producers selling organic vegetables, cheese and flowers.
Tip: This is where the city's chefs shop; arrive by 09:00 on Saturday before the best producer stalls sell through.
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