Take my word for it

Do NOT order a French cheese Advent calendar.

Frankly, folks, I’m still digesting it. Here in late Lent.

It seemed like a good idea at the time.

I had been wanting to explore new French cheeses and to write about them here. And, indeed, the offer, the concept, and the execution were all great! No complaints there at all.

24 different bits of cheese, nicely packaged, each numbered, vacuum-packed. Accompanied by a daily email that explained where the cheese came from, how it was produced, and its characteristics.

So what was the problem?

JUST. TOO. MUCH.

I think it would have been great for a family of four, for example, who wanted to have a taste of different bits and flavors. But for one person? I couldn’t keep up! Felt that I was being assaulted by cheese! Tried having it on crackers, on toast, in eggs, and after dinner, as in the French manner. But one day came barreling into the next like a tsunami!

I even roped my cousin Kay into doing the same in Vermont. Her local cheese shop made up an Advent calendar for her and her two sons. I think they got along better than I did. Of course, there are three of them. Including two ravenous boys.

I am indeed going to write about some of these cheeses, in a leisurely fashion, when I can once again bear to think about milk products.

For now, let me leave you with a bit of trivia I learned during The Great Cheese Caper (h/t Eric Hittinger and the Twittersphere): a “pie chart” in France is known as a Camembert.

Such are the questions that occupy us in Pandemic Times!