Cheeses in France May-June 2025

 Starting in May 2025, in Cassis

St Félicien- a soft cow cheese with a bloomy edible rind, small and round (gone in a day!)

Lou Pérac- a sheep semi soft bloomy edible rind, came in a brick shape; mild but agreeable

Chaussée aux Moines- cow semi soft round with an edible rind; not distinctive 

Ossau-Iraty is a Basque sheep cheese I know already from previous years, pretty stinky semi soft wedge. Great with tomatoes and bread, one of our all time favorites. Nice to be able to get it so inexpensive.

Pèbre d’Aï, chèvre fermier à la sarriette. (We call it summer savory) local small round goat soft with dried herb crust- superb, gone before I remembered to take a picture!. I’ll try to find it again at the market.(see above)

Brousse du Rove- fresh goat, tangy and recommended with honey (good idea, oops, gone!). Came in a tube, 1x4”, slipped right out.

23 May

OK I visited cheese heaven in the Ubaye Valley today- the producer for Le Chambeyron (the area dairy coop) sells direct- in a way I had never seen before- with 24-hr cheese vending machines!

Inside they were tasting and selling cheese in the usual way, and I took out perhaps a bit more than we can easily consume. Ah but it’s research! I saluted the fromagerie workers outside on their break.

It’s all goat and cow cheeses and I chose several after tasting them all, well almost all- in a day or two I’ll have some evaluation. 

As always I attempt to eat and drink local- they seem to complement each other well.

The Allemand M&M Secret Partagé red from the high Alps was perfect with smoked meat- it tasted almost smoky even by itself; and today’s Annibals rosé from the Verdon gorge was bright and refreshing with local cheeses. 

Tomme de chèvre -Chambeyron, Ubaye: aged goat, smooth and delicious

Carline- Chambeyron, Ubaye: aged cow, hard, quite bitter with a strong taste- can’t eat the rind, or even close to it. But with a little salt and cayenne pepper it is great.

Lou Foundré— Chambeyron, Ubaye:

Semi soft cow , fruity flavor

Tomme au Génépi- Chambeyron, Ubaye:

Soft cow with holes inside; mild mature flavor, but I don’t know what the genepi adds.

Fromage de la Cime -Chambeyron, Ubaye: small round well aged cow, dense, a little dry but tasty; like a concentrated Brie.

I got around to trying the Brin d’Amour Corsican sheep cheese I picked up in Cassis a few days ago. Its flavor is strong enough to shine through no matter what else you ate eating or drinking. Love it, every time- it almost tastes like cured meat .The guy selling was a  Corsican for sure, he was right off the boat which docks daily just down the road in Marseille. He had several baskets of smoked sanglier (wild boar) hams, with and without pepper crusts and a raft of sausages, including a powerful fig-boar hard sausage (Figatellu) that I remember from visiting Corsica several years ago. Slice it thin!

I ventured to Forcalquier today for the renowned peasant market and to find some Banon cheese at the source . You have be chasing something, it barely matters what. I’m glad to get the opportunity to ask whether the best one to try was the soft one or the stronger one: the cheesemonger was clear, I should buy the “plus fort”.

Onetik Chebris: Sheep/ goat mix from Basque country, picked up in Cassis- smooth texture full flavor without being too much in either direction. Tall hard rind round, very good.

St.-Marcellin goat , bought at the Bonnieux market. Gentle, creamy and delicious, already slumping by the time we got it home. Here it is, almost gone!

Crazy cheese! This looked fake when I saw it on the cheesemonger’s table, but then she sliced me a piece. It is OMG delicious, a medium cow with red and green peppers mixed in, finishing with a spicy (for French food) kick. Matches Cheryl’s dress.

The tour of goat cheese continued for the rest of our stay on the Lubéron- there are some cow and sheep cheeses but the vast majority available in the local town and village outdoor markets is goat. I find I have some favorites- the small crémeux rounds with white rind , the tomme de chèvre large rounds with edible rinds, and the aged rounds that come wrapped in chestnut leaves (“Banon”style). There are small variations in appearance and name, village to village, but they are mostly similar and I like them.

July 4-8

We’re back! For a few days in Paris and I can add a few items to our cheese chase:

The cheese mongers at the Saturday street market (“President Wilson”, aka Marché Pont de l’Alma in the 16th) are spread throughout the line of stalls stretching a half kilometer down the road, mixed in of course with the rest of the abundant produce, fish, meats and so forth . The variety is astonishing, with cheeses from all over the country, labeled carefully with the name,  type, and provenance. It’s hard to decide what to get, especially for a short visit. I settled on a few (24 month comté and a tomme de chèvre from the alps, plus a slice of a beautiful Brie de Meaux ) which we ate for lunch, and then at dinner our hosts Clara and Guy had bought a different set of mostly goats of various types (plus a sheep, and some cow- Langres and St-Marcellin) So we got to indulge in a wide ranging cheese spread. We’re only here four days and there’s heavy work to do.