Friday, October 07, 2011

Les prix parisiens

Everything is expensive in big cities. Paris is no exception to this rule. I wandered up the rue Cler just to have a look (actually, I wanted to check out a store where we once bought kitchen towels). Being kind of a market street, there were many boutiques open with their food on display.

All three of these cheeses are made with goat's milk. Click to chevrenate.

This fromager (cheese merchant) had a big case of cheeses out on the sidewalk, but this window display caught my attention. These are goat cheeses from the region I live in. But these are certainly not the prices we pay here, where the cheese is local.

The three cheeses labeled in the picture are, from left to right, a pyramid made in the Valençay style (but without the A.O.C. name), a chabichou from the nearby Poitou region, and a Saint-Maure-de-Touraine, a log-shaped cheese that has a straw through the middle to keep it from breaking when handled. These cheeses are being sold in Paris for easily twice what we get them for here, maybe a little more.

But they sure look good, don't they? The morning was moving along toward lunch time and I was starting to get hungry. But first, a stop to quench my thirst...

8 comments:

  1. Only in France would you see such a beautiful display of cheeses. Here in the U.S. we just get it all cut up into little pieces, wrapped in plastic and a label smacked across it.

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  2. but i think things r more expensive in general in the 7th anyway

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  3. Melinda,
    Not necessarily so. Since rich people are very close to their money [that's why they're rich!], to have them depart from it prices are much more reasonable, even cheaper, in upscale "quartiers" such as the 16th for instance. Poor people may think they are not so poor after all if they can afford to spend much money on food or otherwise. End of rant! LOL

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  4. Prices are certainly eye-watering, but the display looks yummy. Just glad we can buy medal winning cheese from a local farm.

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  5. Oh I miss Paris and Provence where everything is so beautifully presented in such an easy fashion- miss the markets- miss the cheese. Thank you for posting this, memories are flooding back!!

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  6. I love goats cheese and the choice on the Dutch farmers markets is sometimes way to large. Which one to choose?

    My chocolate 'dealer' sold me a bar of goatmilk chocolate the other day, delish!

    word verification: cowpedia

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  7. rick, the market displays are always very appetizing!

    melinda, could be...

    n&a, I agree!

    moore, thanks for dropping by!

    peter, try a different one every time! LOL re "cowpedia."

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  8. Now, I should have known these price-facts, but it makes me want to leave Paris when I visit for a day to round up your local fromages (and to see the beauty of your ville, bien sûr).

    I know the linen shop on Rue Cler and have become friends with Mme C.

    Bises,
    Genie

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