P.U. it smells good in here!

Florent just got home after a week of teaching at the Bible Institute in Geneva, Switzerland, which came on the heels of a week in Haiti. So, needless to say, we haven't seen each other much lately. He was supposed to grade papers this afternoon. I was supposed to prepare an English lesson and a Bible study for next Tuesday. So what did we do? We got in the car and went galivanting off into the countryside to see where we could spend some money!

It's been way below freezing here this week and it's supposed to continue on like that for at least another 10 days. With this cold, we've really been going thru the pellets for our 2 stoves, and since the supply was running low, we decided to go stock up. The first 2 stores we went to were out of pellets (like I said, it's been cold!), but the shopkeeper gave us the home phone number of the people who make the brand of pellets that we buy. I called the lady and she said to come on over, as she had some left in the garage. It was a beautiful drive, out in Beaujolais country, and we enjoyed just having time to catch up in the car. On the way, we saw a sign for a cheese maker who sold his products on Thursday and Friday afternoons. "We're stopping there on the way back!"

As we walked in, the yummy-yet-stinky cheese smell filled our nostrils. I can't quite describe that smell, and I don't think I should try. As the French say, "Il ne faut pas le sentir, il faut le manger!" or "You don't smell it, you just eat it!"

When you buy cheese in France, you can go to the supermarket and buy the stuff that's wrapped in cellophane. And it's not bad...convenient, inexpensive. But it's just cheese...

But if you want real cheese, I mean if you're French or just an honorary Frenchwoman like me and love the stuff, you need to go to a real

"marché". Then you are faced with hundreds of choices, cheese made from cow's milk, ewe's milk, goat milk, even donkey sometimes. You can find anything from very mild white cheese, to little round cheeses rolled in oregano, pepper, garlic, etc. Famous cheese like camembert, brie, emmental, swiss. Cheese that's so hard you have to stand up to cut it (and sometimes, if your name is Florent, you break the knife, the plate and almost the table. But that's another story....), and cheese that's so runny, you have to eat it with a spoon.

Florent decided he wanted a tomme"and so he asked for it. The vendor said, "Well now, here's the question. Do you want half cow/half goat, all cow milk, tomme from this region or that region, aged or young?" "Ummm, we'll take half cow/half goat", (goat cheese is easier on the cholesterol!)

Then it was my turn to pick. I looked around and saw a selection of round, semi-dry goat cheese, just like I like 'em. I looked at the name, and it said "petits Charnays". That's funny, I thought, Charnay is the name of the village where Florent grew up. And the best goat cheese I've ever tasted comes from a farm just down the road from his parents. We used to take walks with the kids past Mr. Nem's farm, and sometimes we'd stop in to see the goats. Florent always liked going there as a boy especially because Mr. Nem laughed just like a goat. We asked the vendor where he got this particular cheese, and sure enough, it's from "the ferme de Rontay", home of the famous Mr. Nem. Six of those babies wrapped up in paper, our Tomme and a slice of ripe, runny Brie and we were on our way.

Runny Brie, Tomme and the best goat cheese you'll ever eat