For most people, buying cheese, jams, conserves and hams means heading for the nearest supermarket but for the French, it means going to your neighbourhood store for the finest and choisiest regional products. Though severely concurrenced by hyper and supermarkets, the French neighbourhood stores still exist, especially in towns because of many reasons - one of them is that French knows how to enjoy good artisanal products and they detest making trips to supermarkets often set up in the outer ring of the city limits. The épicerie is like a convenient store for fine artisanal food as well as daily needs. This one, called La Cave aux Fromages (the cheese store) is right in the middle of Besançon city at the market square...
the entrance...
The cheese cutting machine. In the glass container are some very fine Comte cheese. behind the counter are salt, sugar, spices for daily needs...
The jams, honey and other sweet conserves (as well as biscuits and confiseries) section.
soft cheeses and yogurt section.
wouldn't be called a cheese store if not for the cheese...
hams of all kinds are sold too...
Rillets, terines, foie gras and even truffles...
At the entrance: regional wines are offered to complement the dairy products. Select quality oils and vinegars, often artisans, are sold too...
Here's what I bought out of caprice:
1 bottle of milk
2 bottles of rose water
1 bottle of orange flower water
1 jar of pork rillet (Rillet Moulin de Vaux)
1/2 kilo of vanilla flavoured sugar (actually supposed to come for this only but got side-tracked on top of the fact that I only actually needed normal sugar...)
1 packet of biscuits of Reims (flavoured with rose water)
a piece of 165g Parmigiano Reggiano (for my pasta)
1/2 dozen of organic eggs
1 box of fleur de sel (salt flower)
1 small can of smoked cod liver mousse
1 small can of smoked cod liver mousse
Total payment: 43.69 Euro. Not Cheap...
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