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This week in journey: The world’s best cheese and loads of scrumptious bread to pair with it, one other Italian city providing candy offers to new residents, plus a medieval village in France that earns prime scores from the French.
France has for some years been the world’s most visited country, with a file 100 million worldwide vacationers going there final yr to take pleasure in its tradition, meals and surroundings. In 2022, a Belgian man even cycled 870 miles simply to style a very special croissant in Nice.
But which vacation spot in France is a favorite amongst the French? Earlier this yr, viewers of the TV present “Le Village Préféré des Français 2025” selected Saint Antoine l’Abbaye as France’s favorite village for 2025.
So what’s the attraction? This medieval village with cobbled streets and a surprising abbey is tucked away amongst inexperienced rolling hills between Grenoble and Lyon in the southeastern division of Isère. Vercors Regional Natural Park is on the village’s doorstep and the entire place bustles with performers, music, exhibits and stalls for the medieval pageant held every year in the first week of August.
The hanging cliffside homes of Pont-en-Royans are 14 miles away and the city of Saint-Marcellin, well-known for its delicate creamy cheese, is simply an eight-mile drive.
The world’s best cheese and Germany’s best bread
World Cheese Awards names best cheese for 2025
France is rightly celebrated for its cheeses, from Comté to Camembert, but it was an aged Swiss Gruyère that was anointed the best on the planet at the World Cheese Awards in Switzerland on Thursday.
“Three cheeses on, we could still taste it,” was the conclusion of English choose Perry Wakeman, describing its “fruit-funk notes, some slight burn on there like charcoal.”
More than 5,200 cheeses from 46 international locations had been gathered for the judging at Bern’s Festhalle venue, the pageant queens rising ever extra pungent as the day wore on. NCS was there for all the sights and smells.
Moving from cheese to bread, the iconic French baguette has been hailed by President Emmanuel Macron as “250 grams of magic and perfection,” but all is not effectively in this world of flour and yeast. Even although UNESCO has deemed the baguette a vital cultural icon, France’s bread consumption is plummeting, with the each day journey to the boulangerie a disappearing lifestyle. Here’s how the humble bread baton is dealing with its unsure future.
France isn’t the solely European country whose loaves have acquired UNESCO heritage standing, nevertheless. German bread tradition made the Intangible Cultural Heritage checklist in 2015 and the country has greater than 3,200 formally acknowledged forms of bread. A nutty little quantity named Nussbrot was named Germany’s bread of the year for 2025.
Debra and Eric Stillwell, each of their 60s, relocated from Burbank, California, to France’s Dordogne Valley 5 years in the past. The medieval cities, castles and landscapes had been what lured them, Eric tells NCS.
As retirees, they discover the price of residing simpler on their price range. “Everybody thinks that Americans living in France are all rich, and that’s not true,” says Eric. “Our house cost 70,000 euros… We aren’t rich.”
Next door in Italy, the picturesque village of Radicondoli, in Tuscany, has a relocation plan offering up to $23,000 to anybody prepared to purchase and reside in certainly one of its vacant properties, together with an additional roughly $7,000 in contributions in direction of bills like heating and transport.
Tony’s €10 turns right into a feast in Marseille
Actor Tony Shalhoub is on a mission to discover the world’s best, most shocking meals gadgets for underneath $10. That cash nets him a seafood feast in the French port metropolis of Marseille. Watch the ultimate two episodes of NCS Original Series “Tony Shalhoub Breaking Bread,” starting Saturday at 9 p.m. ET/PT on NCS and stream the total sequence subsequent day for subscribers of NCS All Access.
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