Vacherin Mont-d'Or Festival (cheese)

Every year the village of Les Charbonnières hosts the traditional Vacherin Mont d’Or fair.

From 9h, farmers’ market, presentation of the “Vacherin Mont d’Or 2018", descent of the herds (desalpe), Alphorns, bell-ringers, country music.

Les Charbonnières, VD

https://www.myvalleedejoux.ch/en/P1284/vacherin-mont-d-or-festival

In Les Charbonnières in the Vallée de Joux, the Fête du Vacherin Mont-d’Or celebrates the region’s most famous local product. Every September, on the Saturday after lundi du Jeûne people come to the festival to watch the cows coming down from the Alps, savour the first cheese of the season and enjoy typical Swiss entertainment.

The history of Vacherin Mont-d’Or AOP (Appellation d’Origine Protégée) is closely linked with that of the village Les Charbonnières in the Vallée de Joux which proudly celebrates this typical cheese every September with the Fête du Vacherin Mont-d’Or. 

More than 4,000 people come to this local festival where they can enjoy the Désalpe (celebrating the return of the cows from the pastures to the plains), a local produce market, traditional entertainment and, above all, a chance to taste the first vacherin of the season.

The first cheese to be awarded the AOP label in Switzerland, Vacherin Mont-d’Or is a seasonally produced soft cheese which always comes in its distinctive box made of spruce, giving it its distinctive woody flavour. Connoisseurs enjoy it as it is or baked in the oven, from September to April.