I visited Ina Garten's favorite cheese shop in Paris and the tiny, charming fromagerie was a feast for the senses
Erin McDowell
- During a recent trip to Paris, I stopped by Barthélémy, a cheese shop frequented by Ina Garten.
- The shop is located in Paris' seventh arrondissement and has been in business for over 50 years.
Celebrity chef Ina Garten spends a lot of time in Paris, and she even visits the city every year for her and her husband Jeffrey's anniversary.
Paris holds a special place for Garten: A trip she and Jeffrey took in 1971 inspired her to hone her cooking skills and explore her passion for food.
"It was the first formative period in her cooking," Jeffrey told Food Network when Garten's 2016 book, "Cooking for Jeffrey," was released. "All those little shops in Europe — the boulangeries — Ina would walk through them and just glow."
Garten has even written a cookbook, "Barefoot in Paris," dedicated to the city's cuisine. She has also praised the city's food scene on Instagram and has called out a few of her favorite spots to visit.
In one post from May 2022, she revealed that her favorite cheese shop in the city — and the world — is Barthélémy, writing, "Too much cheese; too little time! ... Barthélémy is my favorite cheese shop in the world and it's right around the corner."
Barthélémy is located in Paris' seventh arrondissement, a short walk from the Musée d'Orsay.
When I visited around the holidays, the shop was decorated with festive garlands and ornaments, which gave it an adorable, intimate feel. Though I'm by no means a cheese expert, I was excited to step through the doors to this tiny shop and see what makes Barthélémy so well-known.
Outside the shop, I could peer in to see a festive window display of different cheeses.
Owner Nicole Barthélémy has run Barthélémy for over 50 years, but it was a different cheese shop, or fromagerie, for 50 years prior to that, according to Urbansider. All of its cheeses are aged to perfection in the cellar underneath the shop — Bon Appétit called it a "master's degree in French cheese."
Garten isn't the only celebrity who's sung the shop's praises over the years. It has reportedly been visited by Catherine Deneuve and Charlotte Gainsbourg, and it is also the official cheese supplier to the Élysée Palace, the home of French President Emmanuel Macron.
When I stepped inside, I was immediately greeted by an impressive display of cheese in all shapes and sizes.
Along the wall, there were also bottles of milk, in addition to other products like mascarpone, ricotta, and yogurt — this shop truly was a dairy lover's dream.
The store also offered other gourmet products, such as wine, tomato sauce, jams, biscuits, and bread.
If you were looking to craft the perfect cheeseboard, this could be a one-stop shop.
What I found most notable about the shop was that it was not only a feast for the eyes, but for all my senses.
The smell of the cheeses mingling in the air was intoxicating, as was the buzz of customers speaking in French and English, conversing with each other and trying the shop's offerings.
Not only were the cheeses delicious, but such care was taken into making them look as beautiful as they tasted, from heart-shaped soft cheeses to small bun-shaped cheeses like Le Trou du Cru.
When I visited, the small boutique was teeming with customers admiring and sampling various cheeses.
The shop was stocked practically floor-to-ceiling with cheese, bread, and other goods. It was borderline overwhelming to decide where to start or what to choose. Luckily, Nicole Barthélémy was available to steer our group in the right direction and allowed us to try a few different cheeses.
"It's better to have a small shop really full, than a big one empty," Barthélémy told ChannelCheeseTV in 2014.
In addition to familiar cheeses like Brie and bleu, Barthélémy had an overwhelming amount I wasn't familiar with.
From Persillé and Mont d'Or to Roquefort, the options were endless when it came to deciding what cheese to try or buy.
The cheeses were available in a number of different price ranges.
While some varieties ran for as much as Є55 ($59.75) per kilo, others were priced lower, such as Є14.50 ($15.75) or Є22 ($23.90) per kilo. While you certainly could run up a large bill by purchasing some of the pricier cheeses, it's also possible to visit this famous shop on a smaller budget.
After asking for a few recommendations, I settled on a gruyere, a soft Brie de Meaux, and a goat's-milk cheese called Rocamadour.
My total came to Є35 ($38) for the three cheeses, which I thought was a pretty reasonable price for a very special visit.
The Brie had a tart, perfectly creamy texture without being too runny, while the gruyere had an earthiness that I've never experienced with a cheese stateside.
The goat's cheese was also a different consistency than I was used to — rather than crumbly, it was very smooth and glided onto the cracker like a paste.
After experiencing Barthélémy and its cheeses for myself, I could see why it's so beloved by Garten and people around the world. If you only have time to visit one fromagerie in Paris, you can't go wrong with this idyllic, quintessentially Parisian small business.
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