As a lover of all things dairy, especially cheese, the visit to our local Market from the fromage truck on Friday mornings is eagerly anticipated. As you know France is the worlds leading producer of the lovely stuff with over 360 varieties and l do believe that my friendly fromager manages to accomodate a sample of nearly all of them, thats why his truck is so long. Although my dear wife keeps me on a tight rein she does allow me to indulge my passion for the more obscure and pungent types of cheese providing its kept in the garage and not the fridge. I do manage to limit myself to two small portions per week and have now tried over 15O different sorts of cheese. When l first started visiting the truck l thought l knew a thing or two about cheese – not now – Clement, the owner and operator of the truck and font of all cheese knowledge, selects each weeks cheese and provides a commentary on place of origin, method of production and description of taste and texture. He no longer gives me a degustation (sample) as l would loiter for nearly an hour nibbling on rather more cheese than l would buy until Madame redstuff would have to physically wrestle me away from the truck.

This weeks cheeses are a lovely creamy Chèvre (goats cheese) Crottin du Chavignol and a classic Reblochon. Which will be accompanied by a rather delightful 2009 Saint Emilion which comes in surprisingly at Under 10 euros the bottle. Thats a real steal for this fruity smooth redstuff and l will be returning to the Supermarket this afternoon to clear the shelf – that’s if there is any left.