There is a little mouse in the house. He lives near our log burner – sensible guy – and although we shouldn’t, we leave him French bread and sometimes cheese. Once the barn is finished, he will have to move his little home to the hay barn at the back, but for now we indulge him.
One grievance I have living in France, is the lack of English cheese. In England we buy French cheese by the ton, in fact we are one country that buys significantly more French cheese than many other countries, but the French do not reciprocate. Why? Having lived here on and off for a few years – its purely snobbery and a contrary attitude. There is little academic or gastronomic judgement evident anywhere in the decision making process. They do buy Dutch cheese. I like Dutch cheese – but to never savour a mature English cheddar, a creamy Wensleydale or an acidic Cheshire? Shameful!
But today my Little Mouse made me proud. A test. We didn’t have any French cheeses, but we had some Dutch Gouda. After two days it remined untouched. Today the mature cheddar was carefully placed beside the Gouda. Half a minute only and Little Mouse got a waft of something special. He checked the coast was clear and took a bite of the cheddar.
Then another bite, and another – THEN – WOOSH!!!! The cheddar was grabbed. It was gone and Little Mouse was off to his house!
Tomorrow the ultimate challenge – Brie versus Cheddar. Little Mouse will be under pressure.
A French Homestead Life 
YES, I too have craved a decent Wensleydale, Sage Derby, crumbly Cheshire, etc. I think there is some sort of sinister, unofficial boycott of cheeses from the UK (surely a good enough reason for Brexit ?)……We have a massive supermarket , here in Creysse, with a huge selection of French cheeses, some Dutch & italian & Greek..but only a measly plastic rapped Cheddar ? Why ? Surely, it can’t be for lack of effort by the UK dairy industry ? This needs investigating..!
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All we have is Cathedral City. I think Blighty should boycott the European cheeses as to be honest I would stand up and announce loudly – you cant beat British cheeses! You just cant. We have been trying many French cheeses over the last few years, but they are all very similar and for cooking they do not cut the mustard. Dutch cheeses are great with ham, sliced as they do for a continental breakfast, but again hopeless for a lot of cooked dishes. English cheese is versatile and now we have Somerset Brie – award winning and beating the French brie in many cases, we should be pushing to expand our market – or if we feel our market should stay small to get quality, at the very least we should be able to get some relatively good cheddars, Cheshire’s and red Leicester’s over here. Makes me mad!
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Ha! Sweet little mouse! We’ve just come back from a few days in Amsterdam and have been sampling their cheeses. I just love cheese and frankly can eat most varieties, but am loving Ossau Iraty at the moment, although a ripe Brie I can eat (til the cows come home) … Katie x
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I was just having a rant about missing English cheeses and what good quality they are. I agree there are many great European cheeses, but come on Europe, we need a balance and some good British cheeses in the mix.
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Absolutely!
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Ah, that little mouse reminds me of the poem I’ve written for my new little grandson called ‘A Christmouse tale’. I’ve done some little drawings and put it all in a little book for him. Nice to see that your little mouse is being well looked after over Christmas.
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Love to see your drawings.
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Im not an artist but i was happy they looked mouse like. Wishing you a Happy christmas and a much happier New Year x
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Happy Christmas and New Year too. And to your two girls from my 12 x
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