In A Cheese-monger’s Tour de France, Ned Palmer wends his way around the country’s regions, meeting the remarkable cheese-mongers who carry the torch for France’s oldest and most treasured traditions. Every French cheese carries an essence of the place where it’s made, its history, identity and landscape. Sometimes that’s a physical thing, as the hard texture of Comte echoes its mountainous home in the Jura. Other times it’s about power and politics, Brie swelling to royal dimensions due to its proximity to the French court, or Camembert gaining national status after being supplied in patriotic boxes to First World War soldiers. Witty, fascinating and endlessly moreish, A Cheese-monger’s Tour de France is the perfect guide to a French cheeseboard and a terrific insight into la Belle Republique.
