Melon de Cavaillon
The town of Cavaillon celebrates the great melon!
Well known for this tasty fruit the most popular melon to come from Cavaillon is in fact the cantaloupe, a small round melon with green stripes on the outside and rich orange flesh inside.
The melon harvest season is from mid-summer to the Autumn and the town hosts a festival in celebration of their favourite fruit in the middle of July. Most often eaten fresh, as a dessert or wrapped in prosciutto or local hams as an appetizer, puréed Cavaillon melon is also popular along with diced cucumber with water in a chilled soup.
Like many French towns, Cavaillon is fiercely proud of its local cuisine and in particular this delicacy: in 1987 'The Knights of the Order of the Melon' was set up to promote and protect the fruit. All melons have to pass stringent quality controls and the majority are consumed locally rather than exported.
The author Alexandre Dumas donated a copy of all of his works to the Cavaillon library in exchange for payment of 12 Cavaillion melons a year for the duration of his life.
"Have the kindness to inform Monsieur Tourel, your honourable Mayor, that I agree on one condition: if the town and the Cavaillon authorities think highly of my books, I also love their melons and I would like, in exchange for my 300 or 400 volumes, that a bylaw be passed awarding me a life annuity of 12 Cavaillon melons a year," - Dumas
