A fun trip to Laguiole, the French knife paradise

Recently this blog has been full of Japan posts, including kitchenware, and knives in particular. And then I found this post, half-written, begging to be finished. Being a competent family cook, I love all sorts of (meat free) food and my most common travel souvenir are food and cooking-related things. So Laguiole and its traditional knives must feature here.

So, I am going to finish my scribblings on Laguiole knives now. For practical reasons, I am turning my Laguiole wisdom into two posts: This one here is about visiting Laguiole and where to learn about Laguiole cutlery, especially the famous Laguiole knife. The next post will go into more details on the knives, and how to find and buy a genuine Laguiole knife – even if you are not planning to visit Laguiole.

What is a Laguiole Knife?

Firstly and very importantly, the name  Laguiole and the bee are not protected trademarks. Having previously fallen for non-genuine Laguiole-branded knives even in specialist kitchen shops, I think it’s best to buy your Laguiole knife at the source, and fortunately, Laguiole and the Aubrac are beautiful destinations in Southern France.

Laguiole knives are hand forged knives from Occitanie in Southern France, typically consisting of a single, slightly tapered blade, with a folding mechanism and a stylized bee on the spring. Most Laguiole knives are now produced in Thiers, with Laguiole and Espalion being further centres of knife production.

Genuine Laguiole knives are forged and assembled by hand, which explains their price. A decent genuine Laguiole folding knife or cooking knife starts at about 40 Euro here, with an average of around 100 Euro. Table knives tend to come in sets of 6 or 12 start at 300 Euro.

Why visit Laguiole?

All genuine French Laguiole knives are produced in Central France in Occitanie and Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes regions. The town of Thiers probably produces the most by numbers. Laguiole, a smaller town, may produce fewer knives but is very pretty and close to the Aubrac, a beautiful high plateau. Laguiole is known for its many accessible knife workshops, too.

Tourism infrastructure is very good, and aside from learning about the cutlery tradition in Laguiole, you can drive through the beautiful hilly countryside, walk – the Way of St. James passes through the Aubrac – and cross country ski in winter.

Where is Laguiole, and how do you get there?

Laguiole lies on the edge of Parc naturel régional de l’Aubrac in the Departement Aveyron. Have you heard of the Department Aveyron? Despite being one of the largest and most diverse departements in France, it is not exactly an international tourist magnet. It is beautiful, and completely underrated. It’s miles from any TGV or other major train lines, which may explain that it is not really that touristy.

In absence of any good train connection, the best way to visit Laguiole and the Aubrac is by car. The nearest city with a train station is probably Rodez, about 30km to the South. Toulouse, Clermond-Ferrand and Lyon are the nearest airports. Roads are generally very good in France, and well signposted, but there is no motorway anywhere near.

So, Laguiole is in a relatively remote but beautiful location with good local infrastructure. It can easily be included in a walking holiday along the St James Way, a driving holiday of Southern France highlights (Marseille, Avignon, Montpellier, Carcassonne, Toulouse) or you can easily spend a week exploring the lesser-known Occitanian gems of Rodez, Figeac, Villefranche-de-Rouergue, Conques-en-Rouergue and many more! It’s not that far to the Dordogne and the Lot with their amazing caves, of which Lascaux is perhaps the most famous.

The best time to visit, in my opinion, is any time outside the colder months of November-February, unless you want to ski, and July and August which are the French school holidays, and not only will it be very busy, but also quite hot.

What can you do in Laguiole?

Most people come for the knives, to be fair. This is reflected in numerous knife shops in town, often run by the brands, and a decent number of manufacurest open to the public.

The town is small and walkable, with some of the larger knife manufacturers on the edge of town.

There is also a very nice cheese producer (Coopérative Fromagère Jeune Montagne) with great tours of their production facilities.

And last not least, explore the Aubrac Plateau and eat in one of the burons – former farmsteads used for cheesemaking, now often converted into rustic countryside restaurants. Aligot, the rich cheesy mash is a specialty, along with beef and sausages, but even as vegetarians, we found something tasty on the menu.

And if this sounds too rustic, the Maison Bras, a famous modern restaurant with three Michelin Stars, is just outside Laguiole.

Visit a Laguiole Cutlery Workshop

On our trip to Aubrac and Laguiole, we visited two workshops… and numerous shops. So, which are the best? Hard to decide. If it is just shops you are after, the village centre around the Taure d’Laguoile Statue has at least a dozen shops, usually run by the brands themselves.

I do recommend visiting at least one of the workshops, too. The first we visited is also one of the largest manufacturers in Laguiole, Couteau Honore Durand.

Their facility is huge, with factory, large shop, museum cafe – very much geared towards visitors. We reserved on the spot for an English tour on the same day. It was a great introduction to Laguiole knifes, with a very personable guide, who first let us peek onto the factory floor where all the handle hardware was being machine stamped.

The knife parts, which range from 109 for a simple one blade knife to 216 parts for the knife-punch-corkscrew combo then on to assembly, which we didn’t see directly. All steps stay in the hands of one craftsperson. Hardware is filed, drilled, guilloched, and the handle shaped, then the knife is assembled, then taken apart for adjustments and, fine tuning, polishing and sharpening.

The huge band sanders seen here are for shaping the pre-assembled knife.

The next day, wanting to see a smaller artisanal operation, we visited Atelier Benoit L’Artisan, the boutique workshop of Benoit Mijoulet, founded in 1999. Comparably new workshop, same classic traditions.

Here we were taken right into the workshop and explained all the steps of making a Laguiole knife. The tour was in French, but every step was extensively demonstrated, and the craftsmen were extremely helpful and accessible.

We were shown and explained the different types of steel a Laguiole blade can be forged from.

And we got to see an assembled knife which was then adjusted and refined, in the two hours we spent there. And of course, you would have the opportunity to buy a finished knife at the end, but there was no hard sell.

Where to stay in Laguiole

We visited Laguiole on a family visit to Occitanie and drove up from Albi. We stayed one night in Laguiole Village to break up the trip and stayed at the Logis Hotel Restaurant Gilles Moreau in the centre of Laguiole.

We really liked Gilles Moreau – it could not have been more central, and their restaurant has a great reputation.

You can also stay in a 16th Century Castle a little outside Laguiole at Château du Puech. Or really indulge yourselves in the modern Hotel Maison Bras, with a famous three-star Michelin restaurant.

Where to tour workshops and buy knives in Laguiole Area

 If you are shopping for knives, you will find plenty of opportunity in Laguiole itself, at the forges, and in the surrounding towns. A lot of the shops attached to the forges and workshops carry their own brand only. It is only a few shops where you will find knives from multiple brands.

This is just a small selection of shops, in alphabetical order.

Benoit L’Artisan

A small atelier right in the centre of Laguiole town, very accessible, personally liked their workshop tour best but already had two knives at this point so did not buy. Benoit knives are sold mostly locally or through their website. They also have a shopping guide if you are undecided what kind of knife you want (in French.

Mark : “Benoit L’Artisan a Laguiole” with the outline of a building

Laguiole Village

The Laguiole Village workshop is in Espalion and could not be visited at the time of our trip. They do, however, have a very nice shop on site, and I have read reports on the internet that they do some tours, although not mentioned on their website.

Mark: “Laguiole Village” with the outline of a triple peak mountain

You can buy them at their workshop just outside Espalion, and in their brand shop in central Laguiole. Both my knives are Laguiole Village, I love them for the traditional details, selection of local wood handles, hand forged bee and value for money.

Laguiole en Aubrac

Laguiole en Aubrac is another mid-sized manufacturer based in Espalion with a reputation for high quality. The Espalion site is not accessible to the public.

(Mark; Cows head) made in Espalion, factory cannot be visited

The nearest brand shop is actually in Rodez. They also sell in their own brand shop throughout France. Last not least the knives are sold internationally through many stockists, too.

 There are others – these three are just the ones I liked most in terms of quality and value for money. IN terms of accessibility, La Forge de Laguiole and Honore Durand are two large scale manufacturers outside Laguiole with multilingual tours and large salesrooms. La Forge de Laguiole is also the only producer at present who forges their knife blades in-house.

Interested in the Japanese knife posts?

I loved Laguiole knives long before I got into Japanese cooking knives on my recent trips to Japan – this stems back to my student days when I considered them fancy and classy. More recently, I have visited many Japanese knife workshops and shops and compared style and quality.

If you’re about to visit Japan, please take a look at my posts about Sakai Knives and the master of Matsubara Knives in Kyushu.

The Small Print

I visited Laguiole on a side trip while on a family visit in August 2020, paying for all expenses myself. So what you get here is my totally unbiased opinion, no freebies, no discounts for good reviews. My only monetisation of this blog at the time of publication is affiliate links to Booking.com, which is my preferred (and only) hotel booking site when I am not booking directly. If you use one of the links, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. However, this blog is my hobby, I work a regular job where I generate my income.

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