remarkable diversity of traditional cheeses,
which number from 20 to 50 in most countries
and several hundred in France alone, thanks to
its size and range of climates.
Cheeses as Artifacts
Behind every cheese there is a pasture of a
different green under a different sky:
meadows encrusted with salt that the tides
of Normandy deposit every evening;
meadows perfumed with aromas in the
windy sunlight of Provence; there are
different herds, with their shelters and their
movements across the countryside; there
are secret methods handed down over the
centuries. This shop is a museum: Mr.
Palomar, visiting it, feels as he does in the
Louvre, behind every displayed object the
presence of the civilization that gave it
form and takes form from it.
— Italo Calvino, Palomar, 1983