Emily In France Exclusive 🇫🇷 My Favorite Cheese Shops in Paris in Every Arrondissement
From the desk of an expat.
While I was hosting a recent cheese tasting for WICE (next one forthcoming in December – grab your spot while you can!) I got a very good question – more of a request. One of the participants wanted to know how to pick a good cheese shop… and she followed up by asking me if I had a favorite in every arrondissement. So here’s the (lengthy) answer.
While fromageries may seem synonymous with France, the very idea of a place to buy regional cheeses from all over the country is not all that old. It was in 1909 that peddler Henri Androuët got the idea to widen the cheesescape for Parisians, who historically would have only had access to local cheeses like Brie. He opened his first fromagerie in 1910 on the rue d'Amsterdam. Today, Paris is home to 175 fromageries, a number that's been on the rise in the past decade.
There’s been some grumbling in the cheese world of late that French cheesemongers get more credit and attention than the producers themselves, with the former, like Claude Luisier or Christophe Gonzalez, becoming stars on TikTok while the latter remain overlooked or ignored. When I was speaking with cheese educator Sue Sturman for a recent BBC piece about the future of French cheese, she shared that France is an outlier in this way, as compared to cheese-loving Anglophone countries, where “the trend is that there are lots and lots of cheesemakers coming online, and nowhere near enough retailers coming online to sell those cheeses.”
In France, on the contrary, “Cheesemongers are hot, and there are more of them every year,” she said. “I find it really, really interesting that here, the cheesemongers get a lot of attention and a lot of press, and cheesemakers are not well-known. And in the States, cheesemakers are the high commodity. They’re the rockstars.”
The heart of my journalistic mission is to profile the producers behind these creations, something that has driven me to travel the mountains of the Vosges, the rolling hills of northern Wales, the heart of Normandy and more. But the reality is that for most people, the easiest way to access this bounty is through cheesemongers – and it may come as a surprise that not all fromageries are created alike.
Some source their wares from wholesalers, while others work directly with small producers to bring their creations to market. (Some also do a bit of both!) Some seek to showcase the wealth of raw milk cheeses in France, while others hew more towards industrial, pasteurized cheeses. And finally, some cheesemongers merely peddle cheeses, while others have a hand in their creation, whether they're actually producing cheese, like La Laiterie de Paris, or they're aging it to perfection, like Quatrehomme. I always choose an ager, seeing as their job is to carefully coax each cheese to perfection – often by capitalizing on underground cellars located just below the boutique. And given that cheese is a living, breathing commodity, choosing to buy from people who have a hand in ensuring the continued quality of something that’s continuing to morph and change is the best way to ensure the best cheese-eating experience.
With all that in mind, over the next few weeks, I’ll be offering my little black book of cheese shops to subscribers – one for every arrondissement. For today, we’ll start with the center: arrondissements 1 to 7. Let’s dig in!
1st Arrondissement
La Fromagerie du Louvre (54, rue de l’Arbre Sec) This super welcoming shop is well-placed in the touristic first arrondissement. Cheesemonger Thibault speaks fluent English and absolutely loves offering advice and insight into his wares. These include some incredible house-made specialties like Ossau-Iraty infused with piment d'Espelette, whiskey-aged tomme de Savoie, or sake-washed Langres, not to mention a delicious tomme made with a combo of sheep’s and goat’s milk. In fair weather, you can even grab an amazing picnic basket to enjoy on the nearby quais de Seine. Major props to this shop which, unlike many others, is open on Mondays.
2nd Arrondissement
Crèmerie Terroirs d’Avenir (8, rue du Nil) Despite the presence of over 1,000 cheeses in France, most shops sell a fairly similar range. Not so at this tiny shop sitting along the foodie rue du Nil alongside Terroirs d’Avenir shops devoted to produce, meat, fish, and bread. More familiar offerings are sidelined to make space in this pocket-sized shop for raw-milk delicacies from all over France, often made with the milk of the given region’s endemic breeds of cows, sheep, and goats. This shop is a total wonderland for me, and even as someone who's been professionally eating cheese for over a decade, I often encounter ones I’ve never tried: Think Fourme de Valcivières, goat’s milk raclette, or Corbilo from Brittany. (Oh, and while you're here, follow your nose to Paris’ premier bean-to-bar chocolatier, Plaq, for a hot chocolate shot sure to reconcile you with the frigid temperatures.)
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