Fromage to eternity - an homage to fromage

I'll have some Brie please
or Camembert at a pinch -
life's hard decisions


One of our intentions on arriving in France was to try as many different varieties of the more than 500 types of cheese made in this food-crazy country. Unfortunately so far, the French cheese count has not progressed past 23. That's 23 different types of cheese we've eaten, not just 23 cheeses we've eaten - though it might be close to how many kilo of cheese we have consumed in the last three months.

Part of the problem is that we keep finding cheeses that we want to eat again and again. Like Camembert. We weren't big fans of Camembert before this trip, preferring Brie. But spending a few weeks in Normandy, the home of Camembert, changed all that.

Here are some of our favourites so far...

Camembert - possibly France's most well known cheese, of course it had to be our first - given that we started off in Normandy. This was what we had for lunch our first day in France and we were hooked by the wonderful creaminess. Ripened to the perfect temperature by a warm spring morning's pannier ride. Absolutely delicious with Pink Lady apples.

Petit Breton - we didn't get as far west as Brittany but figured that that didn't prevent us sampling their cheese. This was a mellow yellow cheese, not soft, not hard, with a nice smooth texture. Probably the best thing we did this particular freezing spring day was to buy this cheese.

Le Brebiou - we quite like the particular edgy flavour of sheep and goats milk cheeses. This was a soft sheeps cheese with a bit of a rind. It went very well with some pigeon heart tomatoes.

Livarot - quite a distinctive and pungent cheese, not really for a hot day. The rind is almost gritty in texture and the cheese has a fairly strong flavour. However, it went well with the walnuts and dried apricots we were carrying in our bar bags as trail mix.

Pont l'Éveque - not as creamy as Camembert, with a slightly stronger flavour. We enjoyed it as part of a decadent picnic feast on a rest day in Pont l'Éveque. Where better to enjoy a cheese than it's home town ?

Chevre - a nice crumbly log of dry Chevre, with a soft rind holding the whole thing together. Sitting in the shade of a tree by a pond on a warm spring day, serenaded by a chorus of frogs happy with the morning's shower of rain. With a bit of hoummous and a few pigeon heart tomatoes for juiciness.

Le Délice de Bourgogne - a lovely rich and creamy soft rind cheese that doesn't ooze quite so much as Camembert on a warm day. We ate the whole cheese for lunch spread onto slabs of fresh sourdough baguette. Nothing else needed. Though the tartelette aux pommes afterward was a nice touch.

Le Crottin - great little goats cheeses, not as dry as the Chevre logs. Still with the distinctive goats milk flavour but softer and with a soft wrinkled rind. The hardest part is overcoming the temptation to pop one in your mouth whole - but they are just that bit too big. Sliced, they do crumble a bit but quartered is the perfect mouthful. You won't stop at one...

Lou Perac - la Brique de Brebis from the Midi-Pyrenées is a medium soft sheeps cheese with a soft rind. It has a mild and delicate flavour.

Corsica - sheeps milk cheese.When we lived in Dublin, our favourite shop was Sheridan's the cheesemongers. And our favourite cheese from Sheridan's (and naturally one of the more expensive) was a Corsican cheese called Brin d'Amour - a sheeps cheese of medium firmness that had been rolled in herbs of the maquis. We haven't seen anything quite like it here. Yet. This cheese has a similar flavour (funnily enough, also being a sheeps milk cheese from Corsica) but doesn't have quite the same dense texture or the herb crust. It's still very tasty though.

Pie d'Angloys - very soft, very creamy and rich. Another cheese from the Burgundy region. Very yummy. Like Camembert, it pairs nicely with some crisp, sweet Pink Lady apple slices.

Tome Noir - from the Pyrenées. Slightly soft but still firm textured with a delicate flavour. We were just tasting it and suddenly the piece was nearly gone...

Bon appétit


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words and pics by Neil and Gabby