A church, some culture and plenty of cheese

We had a 'stay at home' day on Tuesday, but were ready to pound the streets again on Wednesday, making the most of the beautiful summer weather in Paris. We'd booked a 'Cheese tasting with Max' which didn't start until 2.30pm so in order to justify our afternoon of indulgence, I had planned a visit to the Petit Palais, a delightful art museum with a wonderful collection of eclectic sculpture, and art from the Renaissance to the 20th century.

Our walk from the metro, is where the church came in. As we popped out of the metro, right in front of us was this very imposing, Greco Roman building, complete with towering greek columns - the Eglise de la Madeleine, designed by Napoleon as a monument to his army. You certainly couldn't miss it, and given it had very little resemblance to the more traditional church with steeples, bell towers and the like, we were drawn inside to look around. It was massive and impressive - yet another Paris surprise.

The Petit Palais was spectacular. It showcased 'bites' of art styles, plaster moulds of sculptures collected from basements around Paris, and saved from ultimate destruction, timber furniture - a complete dining room donated to the museum, and even a lesser known Monet, 'Sunset on the Seine at Lavacourt'. It was the perfect size and scale for a delightful overview of the arts in Paris, without all the crowds. Some people have described it as better than Le Louvre, but personally I think its more like a 'peoples gallery/museum' and just as an FYI, its FREE.

We crossed the Champs Elysée, which was all set up for the infamous Tour d'France arrival on Sunday afternoon, and made our way up the back streets of Montmatre to meet Max, our cheese guru. Max is a 27 year old entrepreneur type, who owned and managed a specialised Cheese shop in Montmartre for the past four years. His two hour cheese and wine gatherings (with a maximum of 12) have become so popular that he recently sold the shop to concentrate on his tasting sessions, and to be able to spend more time with his fiance and new baby daughter. There were nine of us tasting, two young travellers from Norway/Sweden, two girls from Chicago (who didnt really like cheese that much - go figure) and a mom and dad from the US who brought their 18 year old son with them, (but he didnt really like wine!) As you might have guessed we well and truly joined in, along with the Scandi girls and almost cleared our cheese platters, along with the generous pourings of complementary wine, all white, as white wine pairs better with cheese than red wine because its high acidity cuts through rich fats, and it lacks the tannins red wine has through being aged in oak barrels. These tannins can react with milk proteins in the cheese to create a bitter, metallic taste. Fascinating stuff...and we'd only just begun.

Max, was friendly, fun and full of knowledge and we learnt heaps about the production of cheese in France - the home of comte cheese, being just one small area up near the Swiss Alps, and the Tome, which is a smaller thicker wheel, from many areas in France, and named accordingly. We sampled goats, sheep and cows milk cheeses and also learnt the trick to selecting the correctly aged cheese, according to the season as the best milk production occurs when the cows are on the mountains in spring and summer, rather than in the sheds through winter. It was a brilliant afternoon, lots of fun and very educational.

We rolled down the hill back to our metro, but passing by La Terrase Hotel, decided a cleansing beverage was necessary in their rooftop bar. The view was impressive, the service nonchalant and the crowd, mostly American tourists, so we didnt stay long. And once again, Thursday was a recovery day.Read more