Barthélémy — Specialty Store in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Paris

Barthélémy is an independent cheese shop on Rue de Grenelle in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, a small boutique with retro decor and shelves of cheese filling the room. The smell reaches you at the door, and the space is tight enough that you will be looking at what the person ahead of you is buying.

Start with the Fontainebleau, made by hand here and sold as a whipped, cream-like cheese; take it home and eat it with honey. The Comté range is the other reason to come, aged cheeses cut to order. There is a Camembert from Normandy's Pays d'Auge that has stayed on the counter for decades, one of the finest assortments of goat cheeses in the capital, and a Nougat de Vieux Gouda from the current owner that goes down well with guests.

The shop works over a counter, and the staff will walk you through what you are looking at, answer questions and steer you toward something different when you ask. Anything you buy can be vacuum sealed on site, which is how you get a half pound of cheese onto a plane without the smell following it. Ask for the sealing when you pay, not after.

A few items come to €5–20, so a picnic's worth of three or four cheeses, a baguette and a bottle of wine is a modest outlay; carry it to the Jardin du Luxembourg and eat on a bench. Expect a busy counter on Saturday, when the shop closes at 7 pm rather than 7:30 pm, and note it is shut Sunday and Monday.

For anyone building a picnic or carrying cheese home, it still earns the detour.