Beillevaire

Fromage from Beillevaire  

140 rue de Belleville 75019 Metro Jourdain

If you see milking cans in a cheese shop you're in good hands. 

Only kidding.

I LOVE cheese.

I love Cheddar, Swiss, grilled cheese sandwiches and as a former Philadelphian, Texas Tommie's (a hot dog on a bun with melted Cheddar plus bacon).

Since moving to France I now realize none of this is cheese. It's some other material. It just isn't cheese.

THIS is French cheese and I'm learning to love it. There's no better place to get educated than Pascal Beillevaire and its a short walk from my new place.

Plus they couldn't be nicer. I told the serveur right off the bat,

"This is my first time here (so expect some idiotic questions) and that I'd like to get cheese that was in season for summer". 

She led me straight to the chèvre and the 'special of the week'.

By the way I boned up on Beillevaire by reading David Leibovitz' post and I pretty much got what he got. I told them I was a reader/lecteur of Dav-veed's and asked if I could take some pictures.

No problem. 

When other shoppers came in, I let them go ahead.

After all they knew what they were doing/wanted.

I got what David L was having - beurre with chunks of sel/salt, the rice pudding with caramel on the bottom(too sweet for me), the pain d'epice (which tasted way better than any I'd had in Dijon), and the pistachio cream the A Strong Belief in Wicker kept raving about and of course some chèvre, though not the one shaped like the map of France.

You can see there are a plethora of choices here.

And why not, while the patisseries are shut up tight, find a new hangout?

Again, thoughtfully, there are posters everywhere for your edification like why there are holes. Roquefort, which by the way, she told me I should buy in April. Who knew?

Here's my haul. The cherry preserves are from the indoor marché at d'Aligre, Beauvau. Fromageries will tell you dark cherry preserves go with cheese. I can't complain about that. It may take me a year to get through this hunk of butter. Come September they will again have little plates of 4 different butters - a tasting tray perfect for my education but I'll have to wait.

I have one bone of contention with wonderful Beillevaire. Their wrapping paper could be more cheesey?

What do you think? I'd prefer to see a few cows and goats. Look at this crazy milk can covered in cow hide! At least they have a sense of humor unlike some of the deadly serious temples of pastry ahem...

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