I keep confusing Marie Bouillon and Maron Bouillie. One is the designer with an infectious smile and the other is the brand with lilting humor. When I phone up Marie and call her Maron—or is in the other way around?—she answers as though the two were interchangeable.

So I’ve checked my notes once again. Yes indeed, Marie Bouillon is the one who has playfully teased her name into the tradename Maron Bouillie. It’s the Maron Bouillie products—fabric tote bags, shoulder bags, storage boxes, purses, clutch bags, cushion covers and book covers—that are digitally printed with photographic images that speak of daily life in France.

Learning sewing from her mother as a child sparked Marie’s interest in fashion design. Fashion interested her as a field “teeming with ideas and creativity,” but while at fashion school in Paris she was put off by the push to conform to a business model requiring significant investment for the development of collections with a limited life cycle. After completing her studies in 1999, she began working independently and has done so ever since. She created her company Maron Bouillie in 2003.

Not that Marie wouldn’t be thrilled for her products to be considered as “fashionable,” she says, but she sets out to create to create timeless, useful products that contain touches of humor and poetry. Furthermore, she recognizes that by selling shopping bags, for example, at 30€ or shoulder bags at 125€, her artisanal, small-series pricing is higher than what trendy young women are typically looking to spend for a fashion accessory.

Her collections are inspired by various, often shopping-related aspects of life in France, from food markets to bread to old boutiques to flea markets. Images are printed on both sides of the recycled plastic fabric as well as on the strap and bottom of bags and storage boxes so that the narrative runs throughout the product. The objects depicted often define the size of the object created. For example, her market collection plays with the dimensions of each vegetable so that a bag imprinted with an image of, say, zucchinis or leeks is the size of those zucchinis or leeks, or the bread collection that includes a baguette-size tote with four sides, each presenting an image of a different type of stick of bread.

In addition to the market and bread collections, others focus on images of retro boutiques or vegetables (for storing veggies in the kitchen) or letters of the alphabet. Items also remain available from older collections imprinted with images of Provence and of second-hand goods. There are notes of French or Parisian clichés to some of these but especially notes of authenticity and cheerfulness, making them delightful gifts for Paris-lovers and other Francophiles, including yourself.

The full range of products can be seen on Marie Bouillon’s website, maronbouillie.com, through which the vast majority of Maron Bouillie products are sold. Some items are carried by shops in Japan since several years after creating her company she began working with a partner in Japan for distribution and production there. In France, she remains a one-woman show. Products sold online may be made in Japan or France. Those indicated as being made in France are fully made in France. All are made primarily of recycled plastic, though some with lining of organic cotton.

Having said all this, your best introduction to Marie Bouillon’s work is through her own explanation in this France Revisited video.

© 2019, 2020, Gary Lee Kraut

The post Shopping: Maron Bouillie by Marie Bouillon appeared first on France Revisited - Life in Paris, Travel in France.

So here is one way to re-raise the culinary bar with a summer sandwich recipe.

The ingredients
1. A traditional baguette, up to one half per person.
2. Comté cheese aged 18 months, 100-150 grams (3.5-5.3 ounces) per person.
3. Mustard with truffles, up to one teaspoonful, to taste, per person.

The traditional baguette

Formally called une baguette de tradition française, un pain traditionnel français, or un pain traditionnel [de France], and colloquially known as une tradition [s’il vous plait], the make-up of a traditional baguette is defined by a governmental decree of 1993. It must contain only wheat flour, water and salt, along with yeast, with tolerance for very limited amounts of other flours. Plenty of other delicious breads, including non-traditional baguettes and other loaves may also be tried with this recipe if you don’t have a baker of excellent traditional baguettes nearby. However, a traditional baguette is best.

While the proper portion of tender crumb (mie) to cracking crust (croûte) is important for any baguette, I prefer for this recipe a traditional baguette on the slightly white (blanche, meaning less baked) side of the spectrum, as opposed to the crustier more baked (cuite) version. In any case, it should remain within the mid-range, neither too blanche nor too cuite. It is essential that the baguette not be over 3 hours old, otherwise toasting in required. If there are several bread bakers within reach of your grocery rounds, it’s advisable to decide upon the best maker of traditional baguettes before attempting this recipe. Your stick of bread should also be kindly served at the bakery; a fine-looking baguette from an unkind seller may contain traces of bad karma. (Within my shopping radius, the prize baguette is found at 58 rue de Lancry in the 10th arrondissement.)

A single baguette feeds two for an adult’s lunch where this sandwich is the principal “dish.” For those who like figures, count two-fifths to four-ninths of a baguette per sandwich. That leaves a small portion which may have already been eaten on the way from the bakery anyway.

The cheese

This recipe calls for a semi-hard raw-milk cow cheese with a sharpness that is present yet not overly pronounced. My preference is for a Comté cheese aged 18 months. Comté is the most popular cheese in France. Produced in 80-pound wheels, three feet in diameter, then aged in the area of its production for four months to four years, Comté comes from the Jura Massif, a sub-alpine range along the French-Swiss border. We are naturally on the French side with this sandwich, in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region for the most part. (Some Comté also produced in Ain, on the northern edge of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region). The Montbéliarde breed of cow is the primary source (95%) of milk for Comté, while 5% of the overall herd is comprised of the Simmental breed.

Much of the production is placed on the market after less than 12 months in the maturing cellars. However, those younger Comté risk being overwhelmed by the mustard with truffles in this recipe, while older Comtés aged 24 months or more stand best on their own. A 15-month Comté may do, but at 18 months there’s an ideal balance between its nuttiness and its saltiness, a saltiness that becomes more pronounced with ageing. (Note: What may appear to be salt in older Comtés of 18 months and more are in fact cheese crystals, as one might find in older Parmesans). Together, the nuttiness and the saltiness at 18 months further balance well with the mustard with truffles. Learn about Comté aging in this video.

I’ve also tried this recipe with a flavorful sheep cheese, such as a Tomme Corse, from Corsica, aged close to one year, and found it quite interesting. I’ve also experimented with a Brie de Melun (not Brie de Meaux), from just east of Paris, aged 10 weeks, and enjoyed that as well, though I prefer for this recipe a cheese with a semi-hard texture. In a pinch, when French cheese isn’t available, Comté can be replaced by an aged sharp cheddar. In any case, this is an element of the recipe that’s worth playing with according to your taste and the availability of various cheeses. Just be sure to select a gracefully aged cheese with a pronounced but not stinky taste on its own.

The mustard

The Romans of Antiquity were likely the first mustard makers in Europe, but the international conquest of the condiment comes from the appetite of the Dukes of Burgundy during the Middle Ages, particularly from their duchy’s capital in Dijon. Hence the reputation of Dijon in your own lifetime, more than 600 years later.

Dijon mustard (which isn’t necessarily from Dijon and might better be thought of as Dijon-style mustard) is prepared with dark mustard seeds, which have a sharper bite than the mild yellow (actually, yellow-white) variety. The English language gets the word mustard from the Old French moustarde (moutarde in Modern French). Mustum (Latin)/ moût (French)/ must (English) refers to the grape juice or young wine that was added to the grains to create the mustard paste.

Nowadays, 70% of French-made Dijon mustards use grains from Canada, but the jar used in this recipe contains only grains from Burgundy, administratively part of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region.

My mustard of choice for this summer sandwich is one with bits of white summer truffles, moutarde aux brisures de truffes blanches d’été. Specifically, a limited-edition product made by Reine de Dijon, a company based just outside of Dijon. The truffles in question are tuber aestivum, at 1.1%—a small but potent percentage. Use sparsely but markedly, enough to reach the nose when you first pick up your sandwich but not enough to overwhelm the bread and the cheese. The amount is key so as not to upset the proper balance of this sandwich. Do not feel that you have to cover every nook and cranny of the mie (crumb) of the bread. If this is your first time using truffled mustard then you may want to take a test run on with the nib of the baguette. (I will not at this time discuss the debate within the culinary community in France as to whether it should be placed on the bottom or top portion of the sliced baguette.)

Edmond Fallot, another regional mustard house (moutarderie), which can be visited in Beaune, the main town just south of Dijon, makes what might be considered a more precious mustard using fall-winter truffles (truffe de Bourgogne, tuber uncanitum, 5%). However, that mustard is more appropriately served with grilled meats or rabbit, or perhaps integrated into a homemade mayonnaise for other dishes, rather than used as a delicate condiment for this summer sandwich. (I could well imagine either mustard properly dosed to add a kick to a sandwich of raw roast beef, with or without cheese, and leave you to experiment with that at home.)

Maille, the most internationally known Burgundy-based mustard producers, also makes a line of truffled mustards.

No other condiments are needed.

How to serve

Cut in half. Best when served with fruit or salad. Avoid serving with potato chips (though I understand the temptation). This summer sandwich should be served soon after preparation.

Suggested wine

Côtes de Jura vin jaune, a deep yellow wine, as the name indicates, from the same region as the Comté cheese. I’ve also had a delightful experience in pairing with this dish a 100% pinot meunier brut champagne, which has the advantage of serving as the aperitif as well.

See this video for other wine and Comté pairing ideas and this video for other dishes with Comté.

© 2020, Gary Lee Kraut.

The post A Summer Cheese Sandwich Recipe appeared first on France Revisited - Life in Paris, Travel in France.