Cheese Lover’s Guide to Paris, France – 2020

If you love Cheese and you’ve come to France – you’re in the right place. 47% of the French population eats cheese on a daily basis, and they consume roughly 57 pounds per year. For comparison, the Americans only eat 30 pounds per year and the British eat 22 pounds per year

Insider tip: Rent a place with a mini fridge. Thanks to a mix of our Airbnb + Hotel, we were able to keep a stockpile of cheeses in our rooms. This was crucial for the midnight cravings we had.

Stop 1: Yogurt. Stock Up on the City’s Best Yogurt: On the first day, make a trek to La Laiterie de Paris, the city’s first urban creamery, and buy at least one jar of homemade yogurt. I loved their banana version, made with the shop’s own banana jam. Look through the glass window into the creamery, and you may see cheesemaker Pierre Coulon. Make sure to peruse his cheese case, where you’ll find a variety of goat cheeses rolled in fresh herbs and shallots, along with a decadent triple-crème (called Excelsior) topped with roasted hazelnuts.

Stop 2: Old World Cheese Shop. Popular cheese shops in Paris include Fromagerie Androuet, Chez Virginie, Barthélméy, and Marie Quatrehomme are legends in the business. Some of these shops have been around for 50+ years and are cult favorites for locals and tourist alike. Inside Fromagerie Laurent Dubois you’ll find amazing displays – from goat cheese rounds topped with candied yuzu, to cake-like slices of Roquefort layered with quince paste.

Stop 3: Next-Generation Cheese Shop. Pop into Taka & Vermo for a whiff of the cheese renaissance. 

It’s a counter-less shop where the mongers move among the people, an interesting shift in cheese retail.

I also loved visiting a new cheese shop, Saisons, in the Marais where I tasted the soft, ashy cheese of my dreams (Briquette du Nord) and had the pleasuring of hearing the owner practice cello in the corner while I shopped.

Stop 3: Hire a Cheese Guide. Pairs By Mouth offers well-organized tours with stops to butchers, bakers, chocolatiers, and other food purveyors in addition to cheese. I enjoyed a morning food tour around Le Marais.

Cheeses To Explore

Here are some of the top cheeses to try while in Paris:

• Briquette du Nord (a small brick of cow’s milk, partially dipped in ash)
• St. Clement (a unique goat square with a gorgeous cream line)
• Brie de Melun (raw and runny)
• Cremeux Marons Glacées (from Fromagerie Laurent Dubois)
• Coulommiers (a precursor to Brie, supply and gooey)
• Trappé Echourgnac (“the liverwurst of cheese”)
• Niolu Calso (Corsican sheep with a wild rind)
• 100-day St. Mauré de Touraine (from Laurent Dubois, slice it thin & savor)
• Lavort (aged sheep’s milk in the shape of a volcano)
• 42-Month Comté (waxen and carameline)
• Camembert de Normandie du ChampSecret (the last raw-milk farmstead Camembert in France)
• Excelsior with Hazelnuts (triple cream from La Laiterie de Paris)