This will make a gouda puree moment.
France’s first cheese museum has opened in Paris, just in time for the Olympic Games taking place in the City of Lights.
The Cheese Museum presents itself as “an educational and interactive space for discovering cheese heritage and the cheese-making regions of France,” according to its website.
Its founder, Pierre Brisson, created it with the aim of perpetuating the art of cheesemaking in France, a country which has 56 regional varieties made from cow’s, sheep’s and goat’s milk.
“It’s not an easy job, but it’s a wonderful job, and there’s a real risk that it’s going to disappear,” he told the Guardian. “I wanted to do something to make people understand how much ancestral know-how there is.” in cheese making.
“We hear a lot about wine, its production, the subtleties of its taste and production, but nothing about cheese. Even though people love to eat it and demand remains high, fewer and fewer young people want to make it a career.”
The cheese museum, where cheese is made daily, is housed in a 17th-century stone building on Île Saint-Louis, a short walk from Notre-Dame Cathedral.
Admission costs approximately $21.75 for adults and $11.96 for children 11 and under. Admission is free for farmers and agricultural students.
With the admission fee, visitors can watch a cheese-making demonstration, participate in a tasting session and learn about the history of cheese through the museum’s interactive exhibits.
Cheese guides are also available to provide information on topics such as the history of cheese and how it is made. Classes and workshops are also offered.
One of the museum’s cheese experts, Agathe de Saint-Exupéry, explained the nuisances linked to cheese production, an industry worth nearly $10 billion in the country.
“It’s a very individual process that depends on many things, even the mood of the animals whose milk is used. You can make the same good cheese every day, and every day it will taste different. It’s just not possible to do it industrially,” she told the newspaper.
Brisson, 38, whose parents are winemakers, has been planning the museum for a decade and said his passion for cheese began when he was young.
“My father would take me to the cheese shop every Sunday after church and I would be at the top of the display looking at all the wonderful cheeses in front of my eyes,” he told the outlet.
“I was fascinated by where they came from and how they were made.”
However, once he arrived in Paris, he realized the lack of cheese education in the city, something he is working to change.
“I realized there were a lot of places that promoted wine, its culture and how it’s made, and a lot of stores that sold cheese, but nothing that showed people how it was made,” he told the outlet.
“My dream is that in 20 years, someone will say that they decided to become a cheesemaker after visiting the museum.”
