I hope that you and yours are well.
It’s true to say that the French love cheese. They can’t get enough of it. From the refined to the ridiculously smelly they are fromage fanatics. It starts when they are very young. Even primary school children are served cheese with their lunch, and I’m not talking cheesestrings or Babybel – hardcore Brie, Tomme and Pont L’Eveque are every day choices for the kids. Supermarkets have entire rows filled with cheeses of all sorts: soft, hard, salty, creamy, blue, mouldy, ash covered, sprinkled with herbs, mature, fresh, gooey, bug infested (Mimolette – that’s you) and more. Your average Frenchie eats a whopping 57 pounds of cheese a year.
Camembert is a French fromage favourite
But Camembert has a special place for French people. It’s said that 15 boxes of Camembert are sold every second in France! And this week sees the anniversary of the birth date of a woman who was said to be instrumental in the creation of the creamy cheese. Marie Harel was born 28 April 1761 in Normandy. And legend has it that a priest visiting the town where she worked shared the recipe for Brie with her. She modified it and Camembert was born. It’s probably not true. Camembert has probably been around longer, but there definitely was a Marie Harel who made Camembert so we’re going along with this story.
In homage to this legendary cheese, there’s a recipe below for Camembert, guaranteed to put the happy into a cheese lover’s day.
Wishing you a very bon, easy, cheesy weekend from my little pigsty in the middle of nowhere, rural northern France.
Janine
Editor
ps Photo is of the Opera Garnier, Paris in honour of International Dance Day, April 29. And if you thought that was me – close, but non!
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Janine Marsh is Author of My Good Life in France: In Pursuit of the Rural Dream – ebook, print & audio, on Amazon everywhere & all good bookshops online, and My Four Seasons in France: A Year of the Good Life
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Dream tour: Provence beckons and this contemplate photography tour takes you to the heart of the Provencal lifestyle…
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Recipe of the week: Camembert – boozy, baked and blooming delicious!
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