June 2

My diet has gone out the window in France. I’m eating things I never touched at home: bread, pastries and butter.

At restaurants, the waiters don’t always bring butter unless you ask. But at a business lunch recently, I got butter with the bread. The Parisian woman I was with pointed to the little packet and said, “Echire. That’s the best butter in France. You can only get it at cheese stores.”

So I went to my cheese store, one of the Androuet chain, started in 1909, and found the Echire.

As I reached for it, the salesman showed me something he said was even better, called La Baratte du Cremiere.

It came in a sort of lump and was wrapped in waxed paper, like something just off a farm. On my way home I bought some fresh peas and used La Baratte on them. Magnifique.