Cheeseism in Normandy and elsewhere

The Carre4 in Torigni-s-Vire is, of course, in Camembert country and the cheese chiller shows it. I’d say there are 2,5 metres, full height, of variations on a theme of Camembert, 0,5m Pont l’Eveque and other similar Norman cheeses and 0,5m the rest - all French. In vain I sought Parmesan, not even those awful packets of pre-ground yellow dust.

This is cheeseism.

How is it for you, where you are?

2 Likes

Perhaps you could ask one of the shopworkers to show you where the parmesan is kept…

2 Likes

When I lived in Calvados in the 70 s my girlfriend worked in an indépendant run Camembert factory. Every Friday the management gave each employee a couple of ´samples’ for the weekend.

2 Likes

:rofl:
Puts a new slant on “something for the weekend, sir”…
Sorry, that was a bit cheesy, wasn’t it :wink:

3 Likes

Fortunately she worked in the office Graham and a shower a day did the job. I don’t know what sort of relationship we would have had if she had been on the production line !
I actually preferred Pont l’Eveque but didn’t have the heart to tell her…

1 Like

I thought I prefered Pont L’Eveque, too. I bought one of each. Crikey O’Riley! That P. L’Evq is mighty! Straight out of the box, from the fridge, it is Old Sox with added festering trainers. I s’pose I will have to try to find a less pungent one but meantime I could be enjoying some moderately cheesy Camembert.

A pal worked at the Young’s Brewery at Chiswick. In their weekly pay packets - those little brown envelopes of the distant past - was a brass token. This dispensed 1/2 pint Young’s bitter from a machine.

My pal was never a drinker of bitter. He tossed his tokens into his sock drawer [to keep the cheese gag running]. When he finally left Youngs we gathered up some flagons and made him dispense his entire collection of tokens into them. We ended up with 3-4 galls of a very good bitter.

2 Likes

I would have much preferred her to have been an employee in a lingerie shop !!!

1 Like

7 Likes

Here in 71 we have Comte and local goat cheeses, but can buy cheeses for anywhere in France and Wyke Farm Cheddar as well.

I prefer Cantal myself, the closest thing to Cheddar I can find. Bleu d’Auvergne from time to time but, as it is not anywhere near as good as Stilton, not often. Also in this non-alcoholic household, it doesn’t seem right without Port, which I can’t have. ;-(

@captainendeavour

A pal worked at the Young’s Brewery at Chiswick. In their weekly pay packets - those little brown envelopes of the distant past - was a brass token. This dispensed 1/2 pint Young’s bitter from a machine.

I worked for a day for Resch’s (Sp?) brewery in Sydney driving a small lorry up and down to Darling Habour Goods Yard. After each trip the forkie gave me a chit to take to their own work’s bar. There I would be supplied with a pint (yes, in Oz :astonished:) of ice cold beer to drink while I was reloaded. As it was extremely hot I accepted, but I did 10 trips that day. :astonished: :astonished: :roll_eyes:

Hah! Next you’ll be wanting Spanish wine! Or indeed any non French wine…

The supermarkets here are good at favouring local products, but generally have a pretty good range of French cheeses, plus grano padiano, parmesan, mozzarella etc. The cheese counter is the same size as the fish counter, and there is a cheese rayon as well. However we find that the best cheeses are from the market or a fromagerie.

@captainendeavour

the suspense is almost killing me…

have you managed to find some Parmesan cheese ??? :thinking:

Have you got a Grand Frais near you? They always sell an array of cheeses from all over the world, even British cheeses and most definitely Parmesan. Failing that, Lidl sell a passable Parmesan.
Izzy x

1 Like

Very happy with almost everything eatable in FR, inc wine - esp wh wine. One of the highlights of my wine drinking life was a glass of Ch d’Yquem. That and a bottle of Ch Lynch Bages 1966.

I go for ‘les petites danseuses’ in garlic butter and ditto escargots - so, pretty much all except andouillette.

But there is no sub for P/san.

I just worked out that the 5l box of perfectly slurpable Pay 'Oc rouge costs me the same as I was paying per bottle in SP: 1,85€. [How the mighty expense account wallah has fallen] The whisky I was buying in SP is on sale here at x2 the price.

I think it’s the small/medium size of my nearest Carre4, a ‘Market’, that’s the problem. Lack of space/local preferences. There’s a Hyper size Eric the Cleric at Agneau, on the S.E. edge of St. Lo. - 20 mins. I shall have a trundle up there to check it all out.

And I will report back to Stella when I find P/san. We can’t keep her in M.I mode, waiting to know. I see on line that Eric the Cleric has it .

Grand Frais is on the NW outskirts of Caen - 50 mins. Worth popping in if happening that way but not under l/down.

Somerset being the Land of My Fathers, Cheddar is dear to my heart. Nothing beats the bite of a mature Cheddar.

Bio-Paleolithic side note.

When they found a 10,000 year old skelliebone in Cheddar Gorge, back-long, for a bit of fun they ran his DNA against the DNA of the children at Cheddar Primary School. No children matched his DNA - but the teacher’s did! That man’s family had been local to Cheddar for 10,000 years!

They seem to have grano padiano perhaps a little more often I find. Lidl has both and they are quite good.

Gosh I haven’t thought of Resch’s (also not sure on the spelling - it doesn’t look right :rofl: ) for years!

The one cheese I really miss is Haloumi - never found it anywhere except in ethnic shops in big cities.

@captainendeavour, I am fairly sure I have seen large lumps of parmigiana on most cheese counters and would second Grand Frais.

1 Like

All these recommendations are fine, I’m sure, but all my shopping is local, and that means Auchan’s small supermarket and the local boulangerie.

I could make an exception on our trip to Perigueux tomorrow, but that would mean a strange, to me, store. And if there is one thing I hate more than shopping, it is shopping in a place where I don’t know where everything is. Apart from the queue at the tills I can wizz round my local in 15 minutes flat, and even that is too much for me. :wink: :laughing: