Fromagerie Ferdinand — Specialty Store in Montmartre, Paris

Fromagerie Ferdinand is an independent family-run shop on Rue de Dunkerque in Montmartre, and what you notice first is the cheese: a range wide enough that you can point at something unfamiliar and get a straight answer about it. The welcome is warm and unhurried, the kind of service that makes a small neighbourhood shop feel like a place you return to rather than pass through.

The cheeses are the thing to buy. The selection is varied and the quality holds up across it, and the owner can explain exactly why he did or did not have a particular cheese you were looking for, which is more useful than a shelf label. Cured meats sit alongside, and the Italian charcuterie is worth taking home. A sandwich from the counter is the other easy buy: simple, made to order, and enough to turn a walk through Montmartre into a lunch.

The shop also handles catering and events, including company parties, so it is a place you can ask for more than a wedge of cheese. The format is a counter you talk across rather than aisles you browse alone, which means the advice comes with the purchase.

Spend lands at roughly €5–20 for a few items, and the cheese is priced accordingly: this is not the cheapest counter in Paris, and the quality is what you are paying for.

It suits anyone building a picnic or a cheese board who wants to ask questions before buying, and anyone staying in or near Montmartre who wants a proper neighbourhood shop rather than a department-store counter.