Cavaillon melons are very much appreciated by many people. They were particularly appreciated by Alexandre Dumas, the author of the "three Musketeers".
But let's listen to the great writer:
"Twenty-five kilometers from Avignon. Remains of a triumphal arch. Renowned winter melons.
It is presumed that the town of Cavaillon is cited here neither for its position on the Durance, nor for its proximity to Avignon, nor for its triumphal arch, but for its melons, not winter melons, but famous green melons.
One day I received a letter from the town council of Cavaillon, which told me that, founding a library and wishing to compose it from the best books he could get his hands on, he asked me to send him two or three of my novels which, in my mind, would take first place. I have a son and a daughter, and I think I love them equally; I have five or six hundred volumes, and I think I feel sympathy for all of them, more or less equally; I replied to the town of Cavaillon that he was not an author who should be made the judge of the merit of his books; that I thought all my books were good, but that I thought the melons of Cavaillon were excellent; that, consequently, I was going to send to the town of Cavaillon a complete collection of my works, that is to say four or five hundred volumes, if the town council would vote me a life annuity of twelve green melons.
The town council of Cavaillon, I must say, replied to me post for post that my request had been unanimously accepted and that I found myself in possession of a life annuity, the only one in all probability that I would ever have.
I have enjoyed this annuity for a dozen years, and, I must say, it has never once failed to reach the time when the green melons, a little behind the others, are entering their maturity; I don't know if the town council of Cavaillon is kind enough to choose among its melons and send me the ones they think are the best, but I repeat that I have never eaten anything fresher, tastier and more sapid than the melons in my annuity. I therefore have only one wish to express, and that is that my books should always have the same charm for the people of Cavaillon as their melons have for me; it is at the same time an opportunity to express my gratitude to my good friends in Cavaillon, and to tell all of Europe that their melons are the best I know".
With the Society of Friends of Alexandre Dumas
https://www.destinationluberon.com/savourer/melon-de-cavaillon
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator
(free version)
