{"id":287104,"date":"2025-07-24T05:26:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T05:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/287104\/"},"modified":"2025-07-24T05:26:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T05:26:10","slug":"how-to-find-the-best-french-cheese-for-you-an-experts-guide-to-cheese-shopping-in-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/287104\/","title":{"rendered":"How to find the best French cheese for you: an expert\u2019s guide to cheese shopping in France"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">While flying to Europe, I like to ask flight attendants about their favourite haunts in the destination city. Whether it is their hometown or a place they fly to regularly, they know where to eat and shop.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">However, when one such conversation turned to Paris cheese stores, an airline employee told me that she often leaves empty-handed.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cI\u2019m always so intimidated,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>I used to be daunted, too, but after a decade of spending at least three months of the year in France, I approach each cheese counter as a new adventure. During my travels throughout the country, I have made a hobby of sampling regional <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/lifestyle\/food-drink\/article\/3267323\/hokkaido-artisan-cheese-makers-roll-can-theirs-hold-candle-european-kinds?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"noopener\">cheeses at their point of origin<\/a> and, in some cases, visiting the village from which a particular variety gets its name.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">One of the more memorable stops, in the Auvergne region of south-central France, was Saint-Nectaire. My mission: to buy this nutty-flavoured, semi-soft cheese directly from a producer.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">By following road signs for the Route des Fromages, or cheese route, I found one whose family had been in the business for eight generations. Like others in the area, they sold the cheese only by the wheel, which weighed several pounds each.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Before committing to the \u20ac17 (US$20) purchase, I asked for a taste. The vendor obliged, using a tool called a sonde, which drilled into the centre of the cheese to extract a slender, creamy, smooth ivory sample.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While flying to Europe, I like to ask flight attendants about their favourite haunts in the destination city.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":287105,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5309],"tags":[107250,107249,107239,107258,2703,107243,107266,107260,1472,107248,107263,2000,299,36,107267,107252,107259,107261,107264,107237,107238,107253,107240,107251,107245,107257,107256,107244,1411,107247,107246,107242,107262,107265,107254,107255,107236,107241],"class_list":{"0":"post-287104","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-aop","9":"tag-appellation-dorigine-protegee","10":"tag-aurelien-vautier","11":"tag-auvergne","12":"tag-best","13":"tag-beuvron-en-auge","14":"tag-cabecou","15":"tag-camembert","16":"tag-cheese","17":"tag-chevre","18":"tag-comte","19":"tag-eu","20":"tag-europe","21":"tag-france","22":"tag-fromagerie-barthelemy","23":"tag-fromagerie-de-pain-davaine","24":"tag-fromagerie-heloir","25":"tag-fromagerie-laurent-dubois","26":"tag-fromagerie-quatrehomme","27":"tag-how-to-buy-cheese","28":"tag-how-to-buy-cheese-in-france","29":"tag-isigny-le-buat","30":"tag-la-chevreline","31":"tag-le-cremeux-du-mont-saint-michel","32":"tag-livarot","33":"tag-manigodine","34":"tag-mont-dor","35":"tag-neufchatel","36":"tag-paris","37":"tag-pave-dauge","38":"tag-pont-leveque","39":"tag-restaurant-le-pave-dauge","40":"tag-saint-jean-de-luz","41":"tag-saint-nectaire","42":"tag-tomme-de-savoie","43":"tag-tomme-du-jura","44":"tag-types-of-cheese","45":"tag-valdalliere"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287104\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}