Karen

I will be in Paris next week and I want to visit some cheese shops. Does anyone know which are the best/most famous/largest selection? What are the rules on bringing cheese back?

TJ

Pick up a copy of Patricia Wells' "Food Lover's Guide to Paris" for the best fromagers in Paris.

elvira

Fauchon has a fantastic cheese selection, but your best bet is to go to the 'street' markets like Aligre, Bastille or Mouffetard and buy directly from the producers. With over 600 varieties of cheese, no one shop can have it all. Even the neighborhood cheese shop has an incredible selection. <BR> <BR>As for bringing cheese into the U.S. - NO soft cheeses ever ever ever - it is made with raw milk and the USDA has a stroke over raw milk. Hard cheeses fall into a gray area (so to speak); the rules seem to vary slightly from time to time. Contact the USDA and US Customs to find out what the current regulation is on bringing in hard cheeses. <BR> <BR>

elaine

so,elvira, are we going to get a report, or not? <BR>welcome back

Brian in Atlanta

Elvira is likely very busy unpacking her crispy pink jogging suits and washcloths. We must be patient.

Christina

I second the suggestion to buy Patricia Wells' book, it lists lots of good specialty food shops and is fun to read even if you aren't going to Paris for the recipes and descriptions. Even the ordinary fromageries in Paris are so superior to American stores that you can't go wrong; even a basic supermarket will have a good selection of cheeses, such as a Monoprix, there will be a good selection in the gourmet food section of the Bon Marche dept store, also. And there will be small fromageries in any neighborhood with a good selection of small food market shops--such as rue Mouffetard, rue Daguerre, rue St-Charles and rue Charonne/Voltaire/Oberkampf area. Don't know if these match P Wells' suggestions, but I know one of the most famous is definitely Androuet's (trema over the e) and there are several of them around Paris (one on rue Daguerre, I think)-but if you really like cheese I would suggest you go to Androuet's restaurant (which is above a cheese retail shop) in the 8th on rue Amsterdam where you can have an entire meal of many types of cheese samples with an explanation of them (I think they have a hundred or more types there, you don't get a hundred, of course in that menu). Aside from Androuet's, a couple other very well-known Parisian fromageries are La Ferme Saint Hubert (7th and 8th arr), La Ferme Saint Aubin (on the Ile St-Louis), Ferme Hamon in the 6th, and Barthelemy and Cantin stores in the 7th. You might as well partake of the giant cheese meal at Androuet's as you can't bring much back, as Elvira said. YOu can also look at web site www.fromages.com for info.

Bob Brown

If you are in Paris on a Sunday morning, visit the farmers market that sets up along Boulevard Raspail near the intersection with Rue des Rennes. <BR>The food -- everything you could imagine -- is beautiful. We bought several items and ate our tummies full right there on the street. You are buying right from the folks who made it!! <BR> <BR>