I love Paris in the cheese time | French Cheese
In a country that brags about 1,600 types of raw milk cheeses plus pasteurized options, shopping in a French cheese store (Fromagerie) stimulates or anesthetizes your senses depending on your tolerance for an overwhelming variety of options and the unique sensory aroma experience. One of my favorite French cow milk cheeses is Langres from the region of Champagne Ardenne on the Langres plateau. From a sensory experience, the barn-yardy odor hits you first and visually it looks like a tiny orange cake with powdered sugar—the orange color is from annatto seed. The concave cap is sometimes filled with a splash of champagne before eating, but I just dig in to enjoy its bready, earthy, sour-cream, mildly salty, sometimes fruity finish creamy experience. When I visit or work in France, it’s one of my first go-to cheeses. So far, I haven’t found a U.S. equivalent nor an imported version that survives the travel distance or the U.S. pasteurization requirements. If anyone has tried these or knows of any American cheeses with similar characteristics, please share your experiences or send me some cheese please.
French Cheese Please
The French get a lot of grief for their high cheese consumption. That they eat so much of it, so often, and without weight or health concerns. They even have verifiable better health outcomes than us Americans who may worry about frequently eating French cheese or any cheese. I explore these French eating paradoxes in other posts, but for now I propose that cheese can be a healthy part of a diet, presuming you’re not, sadly, lactose intolerant.
The biggest cheese challenge I have in France is which of the 1,000+ officially designated types of cheese to buy and not whether it’s “healthy”.
About Me
The pleasure of food, good health and well-being through simple habits for eating well and flexitarian low-key cooking. 
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Michele Redmond
French-trained Chef, Registered Dietitian Nutritionist & Food Enjoyment Activist
It's about Making Food First
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