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If you've read this blog for any time now, you know how much I love cheese! And after weeks of working out a new (for me) way to share this great passion with you, I've finally done it. Three virtual workshops, which I've entitled, French Cheese Fundamentals , are online and available on Eventbrite . They've been up for a few days, but I've haven't had the chance to share them here yet. Part One is the Basics , a Cheese 101 that covers history, terminology, the French cheese families, seasonality - it's a lot of practical, nerdy information. Part Two is all about creating Cheese Boards . You'll learn about tasting, serving, slicing, shopping and building beautiful boards. Part Three is about  Pairing cheese with wine, other beverages and food. Even though there are no hard and fast rules, there is plenty of information to learn about creating delicious flavor marriages.  I'm keeping the numbers limited to just 15 screens for a more personal experien...

As I mentioned in September , I teamed up with Context Conversations and presented an online French cheese tasting seminar that was offered a few more times over the last few months. And more dates have been added in December and January. I was also invited by La Cuisine Paris to do a live French fromage workshop in November, with another one coming up in mid-December. All of this got me thinking that it would be fun to create some more comprehensive online workshops of my own, so that's exactly what I did! For the moment I've got three finished that I'm going to launch shortly (all of the calendar app stuff and payment app stuff is a bit of a learning curve), so watch this space and I hope to share all of my French cheese knowledge and passion with you very soon.

1) My kind of cake! 2) Do I spy Emily in Paris?    3) Giant bouquets of autumn hydrangeas 4) A modern cheese board 5) Café life

One of only two  remaining, farm produced Camembert de Normandie is made by La Fromagerie Durand . It is worth the extra €2!

A Corsican ewe's milk cheese sprinkled with aromatic Mediterranean herbs and sold in a perfect state of affinage. Heaven!

We kicked it off with a long walk through the quiet streets of Paris and ended it with the holy trinity - cheese, wine and bread. A good start to the new year! Wishing you all a very happy 2020!

Cheese + Mold. Is it safe to eat?  This is a question I get asked a lot! This article  on the Bon Appetit website came across my radar the other day (even though it was written in 2018!) and after I read the following paragraph, I knew I had to share it. "The first thing you’ve got to understand is that, by and large, microorganisms like mold are what makes cheese, well, cheese. “In a lot of ways, cheese is mold,” explains Morillo. With the notable exception of fresh cheeses that are meant to be consumed shortly after they are made (mozzarella, ricotta, queso fresco, etc.), most cheeses owe their distinct deliciousness and texture to the microbiological alchemy that occurs when mold, bacteria, and other microorganisms feast on the proteins and sugars present in milk, transforming them into a wide range of flavorful compounds. (Science is cool!)" Yes, science is cool! And mold, when it comes to cheese, can definitely be our friend.

Les grèves in Paris continue...* I've been averaging seven miles a day on foot since last Thursday to get to and from my  food tours , but this morning I had a long walk across the river for a cheese workshop , and as an added bonus there was a huge protest march this afternoon, so it took me almost two hours to get home after being rerouted due to closed bridges and roads. The entire time I was walking (and hungry!) I was focusing on two things;  one was not getting run down by the inexperienced cyclists and trottinette  drivers, and the other was making a giant bowl of comforting, filling spaghetti carbonara for dinner when I got home. And a giant bowl it was! I should have invited several friends over to share it with us. (However, I know I'll appreciate the leftovers when I get home tomorrow night!) *There are a few more days of strikes (grèves) predicted, but hopefully things will get back to normal by this weekend. 

Shopping at Laurent Dubois for one of my favorite Alpine cheeses, Tomme de Chartreuse.

1) Our neighborhood 2) Enzo really needs to learn to chill out 3) Drinks on the terrace at Treize au Jardin 4) Evening light in Saint-Germain-des-Prés 5) Goat cheese - ash covered and sprinkled with sarriette

Located just a block away from  La Grande Épicerie  in Saint Germain,  la Ferme d'Alexandre  doesn't feel "off the beaten path," but I wanted to share it with you anyway. I've come to love this place, not only for their fabulous cheese selection, but for the kindness and knowledge of  the owner Alex, and the entire staff. I shop here every week to  buy fromage for the French cheese workshop we offer at Paris by Mouth, so I've gotten to know them and what they offer very well. And if you follow me on Instagram , you've most likely seen many of their cheeses and their beautiful  blue and gold tile floor ! They always have some interesting sheep milk cheeses from the Pyrénées and right now their goat cheese section is amazing! You can also find the last raw milk farmer produced  Époisses  in France here, as well as a handful of delicious Italian cheeses. And in addition to cheese, there is a good selection of charcuterie, unpasteurized butter...

March 27 is la Journée Nationale du Fromage, or National Cheese Day, here in France. Today we will be honoring rare, small production, farmer produced, raw milk cheeses. You can be sure that I'll be celebrating!

Over the last (almost) 13 years I've covered a lot of topics here on Chez Loulou, and the one that I still love to talk about and am most passionate about is   French cheese. But lately cheese has been getting some competition. My project to taste  all the cheese  slowly progresses and I continually nerd out with books like  The Oxford Companion to Cheese  and  Mastering Cheese . I always want to learn more, read more and  eat  more cheese. Also, for the last few years I've had the incredible opportunity to offer a French  cheese tasting  workshop with  Paris by Mouth . It is the highlight of my week and the most fun I ever imagined a job could be. French cheese will always be my greatest love, but now I've fallen for something else. I'm having a little fling with French wine. (shhh....don't tell cheese) Over the summer I enrolled in an intense, online French Wine Scholar certification program and I honestly had no idea wha...

1) Oozy grilled cheese at Paroles de Fromagers 2) goat and goat and goat 3) Emballage 4) Merci to the monks for making such delicious cheese! 5) Garrigue

I've always loved the subtle flavors that leaves ,  bark ,  ash  and  herbs  lend to cheese. Montrachet is no exception. It is wrapped in a chestnut leaf and is one of a handful of goat cheeses produced in Burgundy, a region that is famous for its wine, bien sûr , but also for its cow's milk cheeses, especially of the washed rind variety. Cheeses like Époisses, Abbaye de Cîteaux , Soumaintrain and Ami du Chambertin . But the popularity of cows in Burgundy doesn't mean you should disregard the wonderful goat cheeses from this region, such as Mâconnais and Charolais, both of which can be made entirely from goat's milk, and sometimes from a blend of cow and goat's milk. Montrachet is made by a sole producer located in Saint-Gengoux-le-National, a tiny town about an hour north of Mâcon. It is a semi-firm, unpasteurized goat cheese shaped like a squat little barrel. The chestnut leaf keeps it moist and adds a slight note of earthiness. It is tied with a strip...

Train travel spoils you. No need to get to the airport 2+ hours before your flight, no waiting in long security lines, no strict weight and size limits on your luggage. You arrive a bit before your train is scheduled to depart, stow your bags, find your seat and away you go! Living in Paris spoils you too. You quickly learn that much of France and many parts of Europe are just a few hours from the city. (and escaping from time to time is good for le moral ) Feel like going to Amsterdam? No problem! Jump on a train and you'll be there in just over 3 hours. Want to taste some wine in Bordeaux? It's only 2½ hours away. Craving some bouillabaisse and time on the beach? You can be sitting in the sun in Marseille in a little over 3 hours. And of course there's Lyon , a city that is considered paradise for the French food lover and a place that had both intrigued me and been recommended to me by several friends over the years. So last summer I hopped on the TGV and just 2 hours la...