Wednesday Bites: La Fromagerie

The absolute best thing about living in France — aside from the free school and the free healthcare and the weekly markets… (OK, there are a lot of great things about living in France) — so one of the best things about living in France is the cheese.

I have a few favorite cheese shops in Paris, but these photos hail from a small one in Boulogne-Billancourt, on the rue du Point du Jour. The cheesemonger there is named Guenael Gloux (which is pretty much the best name ever.) He comes from Brittany, and he has an ever-changing selection that makes each visit a treat.

The fleur du maquis or the “flower of the shrubland” is one of my favorite cheeses, hailing from Corsica. It’s a sheepsmilk cheese — Corsica is one of only two regions in France known for its sheepsmilk cheeses — that’s covered in a flavorful coating of rosemary, fennel, and juniper. The cheese itself is very mild, and the rind gives it a lovely herbal aroma. Plus it’s just so damn beautiful.

Brie noir is a discovery I made about a year and a half ago. It’s an invention that came about in the Brie region when Brie cheeses were too big or too small to be made into AOC Brie de Meaux. The AOC cheese needs to weigh between 2.8 and 3.2 kilograms to be sold with the label, so when cheeses missed the mark, they were dried in newspaper until they reached the texture of Parmesan and then sold by the wedge (one-eighth of a cheese) to the locals.

It’s only in recent years that this cheese has made it to the capital. It has a very distinctive Brie aroma, but it’s not overly strong. It’s best eaten in shavings, atop a salad, for example. A large chunk is a bit too overwhelming to be enjoyable.

Selles-sur-Cher is one of my favorite goat cheeses. (My marriage license requires me to say that, since the Country Boy hails from the Loire Valley).

But in all seriousness, Selles-sur-Cher is a great ashy goat cheese with the sort of texture I love: soft but not runny, with a fresh, grassy, and just ever-so-slightly barnyardy aroma. It doesn’t have that sour flavor that a lot of American goat cheeses have, but the ashy rind has a nice bite and pungency to it, especially when you ask for one that’s demi-sec or partially dried.

Bon appétit!