Tucked away in eastern France, near the Swiss border, is the Jura, a forest-covered mountain range that harbours a rich, hidden history in its secluded villages.
If you were to visit these villages today, a casual observer might not notice anything which would indicate this region’s combined importance in the trades of gemcutting and cheesemaking.
The mountain range is extensive; however, the scattered villages around the city of Saint-Claude have an unexpectedly unique story.
The Jura mountains, whose name is derived from the Celtic word for ‘forest,’ have had people living on them since at least the 13th century.
It’s a beautiful place; however, it has proven to be a challenging locality for people to survive. Harsh winters and poor soil mean that vegetable farming rarely yields anything of interest.
The people who decided to call the Jura home have historically needed to look for other ways to feed themselves and earn a living. Raising cattle for meat and milk has long been a necessary tradition in the Jura.
The area has long since had a tradition of cheesemaking, and local legend tells us how the techniques for producing cheese came to the region.
Tales of yesterday
Once, a monk from Chézery recklessly ventured into the middle of the mountains during a violent snowstorm, intending to go to Saint-Claude.
Lost in the forest after hours of walking, blinded by large snowflakes and surrounded by wolves waiting for prey, the exhausted old monk let himself fall into the snow.
Soon, a rugged mountain man, capable of facing the storm, passed by. He noticed the man covered in snow and realised he was still alive. He put the monk over his shoulders and carried him home in an attempt to save him.
Warm and well-cared for in the peasant’s poor home, the monk gradually regained strength. Alive and well, the monk wanted to thank the family he owed his life to.
The best way he could think of was to gift him the secret cheese-making technique that only the Chézery monks knew. Thanks to this production, this modest mountain family has lived in great material comfort since then.
The secret gradually reached the rest of the mountain, generating real prosperity.
For half a millennium, the other primary industry in this part of the Jura has been gemcutting, and local legend also tells about the origins of that trade.
The story says that a watchmaker from Geneva named Michaud introduced gemcutting techniques to the Jura in 1735.
The farming villages dotted across the mountaintops eagerly took to the trade because it gave them winter work without agricultural income.
The soil is poor quality in the higher mountain altitudes, so the farms were meager. This might explain why the lapidary and cheese trade excelled in these plateau villages and in the Valserine Valley.
Cheesemaking centre
Goats and sheep have long occupied the mountainous areas of southern Haut-Jura; however, some cows were present, especially in the valleys and the local cheeses were traditionally made from goat and cow milk.
The significant implantation of cows dates only from the 18th century when the textile industry, relying on goats and sheep, turned to other localities. This new bovine breed made it possible to develop the manufacturing process for ‘chevret’ and ‘blue’ cheese.
Strangely enough, the centre of both of these traditions, cheesemaking and gemcutting, lies in the town of Septmoncel, a small mountain village 12 kilometres outside the local capital city of Saint-Claude.
Digging a little deeper, we can find factual accounts that help back up these anecdotal local legends.
The origins of cheesemaking in the region seem to date back to the 12th century when monks from Dauphiné introduced the production technique to the monks in the abbey at Saint-Claude.
Several documents, dating from around the beginning of the 19th century, shed light on the unique blue cheese that the residents of Septmoncel have since become known for.
The lawyer and deputy Christin, Voltaire’s wrestling companion, presents in June of 1791 a report defending the maintenance of the activities of the Salines de Montmorot, whose production is necessary for the manufacturers of the cheeses of ‘Gruyère’ and ‘Septmoncel’.
In 1799, the Breton Lequinio, in his ‘Voyage Picturesque dans le Jura’, tells us, “To the south-east of Saint-Claude, and about two leagues from this town, you will find Septmoncel, a large village, and the capital of the district where the excellent cheeses that bear its name are made.
“These are blue cheeses like those of Roquefort and which approach them in taste as much as in the appearance of the cut. It is one of the best types of cheese in France; and if it is not generally known there, it is because the district which supplies it is not large enough to produce a very considerable quantity of it.”
A document from a little before 1800 indicates: “The so-called Septmoncel cheese is made exclusively in the communes of Septmoncel, Les Moussières, Bellecombe and Bouchoux; these last three do not even make any others.
“Unlike Gruyère cheese, which is made with the help of a large number of cow owners mixing their milk to produce cheeses of 15, 20 to 30 decimal pounds, these are made separately in each home.
“Septmoncel cheese, having reached its point of maturity, is one of the best-known and has valuable properties for digestion. It would be better known if it could be transported further away. It goes to Lyon, Geneva, and Besançon, where it is very sought after; but only a small quantity is taken to Paris.”
Also in 1799, François-Nicolas Eugène Droz, writes in a letter: “As for the Septmoncel cheese, after it has been purified, turned and returned in the mould, wiped on shelves placed around the wooden fireplace which is in the middle of the kitchen; it remains there for a few days… it ferments, then it is dried in the fireplace, and when it is completely dry, it is placed in the cellar from the field, safe from flies and mice; they then weigh 15 to 20 pounds…”
This cheese, he writes, is made by women.
He explains; “The advantage of this production consists in the fact that … the whole thing costs nothing to manufacture, being done by women and children, while for the Gruyère, you need cheesemakers which cost [150 francs] for four months and which require good food; finally, Bleu de Septmoncel is usually sold in Lyon for five francs per quintal more than Gruyère.”
Like Morbier, Bleu de Septmoncel was a women’s specialty. These two productions did not require, like Gruyère, the difficult manipulations of a well-muscled man.
They were also relatively quick and required simpler hardware. As a result, the farmers had the opportunity to become the masters of these productions in their own homes.
Bleu de Septmoncel has a delicate yellowish crust and is slightly floury under the finger. The ivory-white cheese is spotted with somewhat pale blue-green veins that give off a characteristic nutty flavour.
It has a medium flavour that’s slightly fruity with hints of vanilla, spices, and mushrooms.
Considerably larger than most blues, it is also recognisable thanks to its deep yellow inner paste and a high proportion of blue mould.
It is firm and dense in texture, like a Stilton, but it tastes much spicier and less sweet.
Gemcutting hub
The story of Jurassian gemcutting is more complex than the origins of cheesemaking in the region. The part of the Jura that borders Geneva saw many population groups move back and forth over the years.
With the rise of Calvinism in the 16th and 17th centuries, many of nearby Geneva’s Catholic artisans from the watchmaking industry were pushed west across the French border due to religious persecution.
At that time, Geneva was experiencing an exceptionally prosperous period with many wealthy merchants.
When the extremist Calvinists rose to power, they pushed the merchants, watchmakers, jewellers, and their associated lapidaries out of the city.
This brought many families and their trade secrets to the Jura region, and Saint-Claude became a kind of mountaintop sanctuary for Catholic pilgrims.
The local pastime handicraft of producing small wooden religious items meant that the local Jurassians already had a meticulous skillset when the lapidary trade arrived, and it spread quickly. It seems that the first lapidaries were present in the Jura around 1550.
In 1685, with the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, Protestant jewellers from the diamond-cutting trade were pushed out of an increasingly Catholic France, and many took refuge in Geneva. This revitalised the Swiss watchmaking industry and, by association, boosted the lapidary activity in the Jura.
For this reason, the famous Protestant explorer, gemstone merchant, and jeweller of King Louis XIV, Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, sold his chateau in Aubonne near the base of the Jura mountains and left for Russia and, hopefully, safer lands to settle in.
In 1704, the use of ruby bearings in mechanical watches was developed.The demand for tiny custom-cut rubies increased exponentially, giving rise to many lapidary shops around the Jura in villages such as Septmoncel and Mijoux and, a bit further down the mountain, closer to Geneva, in Gex.
By 1770, there were 600 lapidaries working on the plateau of the Jura. From there, the industry increases steadily.
Lapidary families such as Gauthier-Clerc, Dalloz-Furet, Hugon, Roland, Fournier, and Chevassus-Berche started to show their products to jewellers in Paris, and some families became merchants, facilitating the transfer of cut gemstones between the Jura and Paris.
By 1770, this relationship with France’s capital caused the Jura to experience an economic boom. The Jurassian women began to dress themselves in the latest Parisian fashions and the town of Septmoncel became known as ‘Little Paris.’
Cheesemaking lapidaries
Let's consider that most of the gemcutting work in the Jura was done at home by family groups, such as husband and wife or brother and brother. We can imagine how easily these family groups would have shifted modes between the winter and summer.
When the weather was nice, it was time to tend to the cows and the milk and the cheese. When the weather turned cold and snowed you in, it was time to focus on gemcutting.
In this way, the Jura families could survive for hundreds of years and increase their standard of living from simple peasants in the 16th and 17th centuries to ‘Little Paris’ in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries.
Not only did the lapidary farmers raise and milk cows, but they also possessed the secret of cheesemaking. As time passed, they developed specific techniques to make a kind of blue cheese that would become known as Bleu de Septmoncel, later known as Bleu de Gex.
Like cheesemaking, gemcutting was also very much a women’s art. In surviving photos, we often see more women than men in French gemcutting factories and studios.
In 1856, Alphonse Rousset, in the Dictionary of the Communes of Jura, wrote the following:
“The main source of income for residents is cheese making. This production includes only the famous blue cheeses known as Septmoncel as well as Chevret, a sort of small square-shaped cheese with a soft consistency, which are not likely to be exported far away and are consumed almost exclusively in Franche-Comté; manufacturing has seven main cheese centres, each formed from the meeting of a certain number of owners or farmers who pool the daily product of their livestock and then share the sale price."
He continued: “Independently of these associations, there are still a few individuals, but in very small numbers, who alone or with the help of one or two neighbours also engage in the same manufacturing.”
Therefore, the transition from manufacturing to cheese production had already become a reality.
“There are as many cheese factories as there are households. Each resident makes their own cheeses in their home. We make two kinds of it, one called Septmoncel, which is of the first quality, and the other called Gruyère. The production of blue cheese amounts to 40,000 kilograms annually. It originated in this town.”
In 1861, the Annuaire du Jura said explicitly: “This type of cheese is made in the cantons of Saint-Claude and Morez; There are no cheese companies for grey-blue cheeses; each cow owner makes and sells for his own account. Twenty-three municipalities were manufacturing them at the time.”
It was likely that gemcutting men would tend to the fields and the cows while the gemcutting women would work on the production of the Bleu de Septmoncel when the weather warmed.
Development of two industries
Over the next 150 years, the lapidary trade in the Jura continued to increase.
By 1920, it’s estimated that there were 8,000 lapidaries in the Jura Mountains, with the significant gemcutting centre being Septmoncel.
These cutters mainly were cattle farmers seeking employment in the winter months, though some families chose to cut all year.
With Auguste Verneuil’s creation of the synthetic ruby, the Jura became proficient in producing faceted synthetic gemstones. After World War I, the lapidary activity in Jura peaked.
In the 1920s, there was an increased demand for square sapphires and baguettes with lozenge tables, which the US market was very fond of.
These gemstones were sold in Paris, which had become an important gemstone and jewellery trading centre.
The financial crisis of the 1930s hit the Jura cutting industry and destroyed many local lapidary businesses.
In the 1950s, another wave of financial despair moved through the region and nearly wiped out all the at-home workshops.
The home gemcutting business declined until 1989 when the final home workshop closed.
Fortunately, the blue cheese industry has survived better than the Jurassian lapidary industry.
Director of the National Dairy School of Poligny, P. Sajous, noted in 1935: “Due to the difficulties of transporting milk for farms far from villages, farm manufacturing still has great importance.”
By 1859, 23 municipalities in the borough of Saint Claude produced 253,000 kilograms of Bleu de Septmoncel.
At the start of production, the peasants made cheese on the farms; however, progressive currents in the Saint Claude sector and economic prospects caused the birth of cooperative groups who produced the local cheeses, including Bleu de Septmoncel.
By 1931, these cooperatives produced 560 tonnes of the unique blue cheese compared with only 120 tonnes on isolated farms.
In the middle of the 20th century, throughout the Haut Jura, there were more than 30 cheese production collectives of various importance, and the Municipality of Septmoncel had four of them, located in the hamlets of Vie Neuve, Montépile, Clavière and Manon.
The success of the cheese and the manufacturing collectives led the Ministry of Culture, with the financial support of the General Council and the Chamber of Agriculture of the Jura, to create a mixed training school for cheese making in La Pesse in 1925.
This training was led by teachers from L’E.N.I.L. in Poligny and operated each year over four winter-time months.
In France, the appellation d’origine contrôlée (AOC) is a label that identifies products produced in a defined geographical area — the terroir —using recognised and traditional techniques.
Bleu de Septmoncels cheese, also known as Bleu de Gex, was able to define its terroir and protect its heritage and name, being one of the first to receive the AOC label in 1935.
Bleu de Gex (as it is mainly known today) also has a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO).
This European label guarantees consumers that all stages of production take place in the delimited geographical area of the Appellation — the Haut-Jura, straddling the departments of Ain and Jura.
All manufacturing, from milk production to cheese maturing, takes place exclusively in this area.
Today, two cooperative cheesemakers make Bleu de Gex, and only one farm workshop remains.
On the cutting side, two small workshops remain in Saint-Claude and the surrounding region.
Fortunately, it’s still possible to have gemstones cut in the centre that was once the biggest in the world, and it’s still possible to taste the unique flavour of Bleu de Septmoncel, the cheese that the gem-cutters of Septmoncel started making more than 200 years ago.
READ EMAG