Emily in France 🇫🇷 I. Love. Cheese.

I live in a country of cheese.

Charles de Gaulle once said it was impossible to govern a country with 246 kinds of cheese.

Today, in France, we have over 1,000.

Cheese in France is omnipresent, but it's not overwhelming. When people eat cheese with a meal, it's served after the main but before dessert; you eat maybe a piece or two, but that's it. The platters of pre-dinner cheese you'll see in the States are nowhere to be found, in France. And honestly, even as a cheese-lover, a piece (or, OK, two or three) is enough.

As for my favorites... it's so hard to pick. I joke to my tour groups that my favorite cheese changes every week, but it's kind of true. I've spent large swaths of my career interviewing cheesemakers, cheesemongers, delving into the histories of individual cheeses. These days, I'm loving Roquefort on rye bread, real, washed-rind Munster, and heart-shaped Neufchatel.

But that could change very soon.

Like... tomorrow.
 

Where I'm Eating

A Bastille nightclub recently launched a restaurant of the same name. Badaboum, which comes from the same team as Les Enfants du Marché, has quickly exploded onto my list of my favorite Parisian restaurants. (The others can be found here.)
 

Where I'm Going

NYC!

What I'm Writing

1. Nothing new this week, so looking at past cheese stories! I delved into what's wrong with Camembert in France for the BBC.

2. Some say mimolette was invented to spite the Dutch. I uncovered the truth for 10Best.

3. If you're looking for off-the-beaten-path cheeses, I profiled nine rarer ones for Fodor's.

What I'm Reading

There's a lot to love about the poetic, ambiance-rich Witches on the Road Tonight by Sheri Holman. While the plot fell short in some places, and questions posed at the beginning sometimes remained unanswered, the sheer beauty of this book makes it well worth a read.

A bientôt !
Emily in France