If you're a cheese lover, here's a spot to discover when you're out and about in the Paris region. Head for Jouarre, in Seine-et-Marne, to discover the Ganot cheese factory. With its authentic frontage, this white building with green shutters doesn't go unnoticed. In the pleasant courtyard, old milk jugs filled with flowers and a few fluttering swallows welcome visitors.
Built in 1895, the Ganot cheese dairy is one of the few remaining brie fermier (farmhouse) cheese maturing facilities in France. No matter how hard we look, there are no cows around. " We're not farmers, we're artisans: we collect the cheeses from the farms in the Briard region and mature them in our cellars," explains Isabelle Hedin, who happily runs the cheese dairy with her brother.
In addition to market tours and on-site sales, the cheese dairy offers tours and tastings. After a visit to the small museum- which displays antique objects and utensils related tocheese-making - and the showing of a short film, we head for the ripening tunnel, "at 8 degrees, summer and winter", says one of the employees. On traditional wooden racks, several varieties of cheese are lined up to mature.
Among them, different types of Brie : their farmhouse, of course, organically farmed, but also Melun, Meaux... "Because Brie isn't just one cheese, it's several! And that's what I like to show people when they come here," concludes Isabelle mischievously.
Location
La Fromagerie Ganot
4 Rue Cécile Dumez
77640 Jouarre
Prices
€5 - €6.5
Official website
www.fromagerie-ganot.fr
