Ancient Gaul was celebrated for some of its home-made cheeses.  Pliny praises those of Nismes, and of Mount Lozere, in Gevaudau; Martial mentions those of Toulouse, &c.  A simple anecdote, handed down by the monk of St. Gall, who wrote in the ninth century, proves to us that the traditions with regard to cheeses were not lost in the time of Charlemagne:  “The Emperor, in one of his travels, alighted suddenly, and without being expected, at the house of a bishop.  It was on a Friday.  The prelate had no fish, and did not dare to set meat before the prince.  He therefore offered him what he had got, some boiled corn and green cheese.  Charles ate of the cheese; but taking the green part to be bad, he took care to remove it with his knife.  The Bishop, seeing this, took the liberty of telling his guest that this was the best part.  The Emperor, tasting it, found that the bishop was right; and consequently ordered him to send him annually two cases of similar cheese to Aix-la-Chapelle.  The Bishop answered, that he could easily send cheeses, but he could not be sure of sending them in proper condition, because it was only by opening them that you could be sure of the dealer not having deceived you in the quality of the cheese.  ‘Well,’ said the Emperor, ’before sending them, cut them through the middle, so as to see if they are what I want; you will only have to join the two halves again by means of a wooden peg, and you can then put the whole into a case.’”

Under the kings of the third French dynasty, a cheese was made at the village of Chaillot, near Paris, which was much appreciated in the capital.  In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the cheeses of Champagne and of Brie, which are still manufactured, were equally popular, and were hawked in the streets, according to the “Book of Street-Cries in Paris,”—­

  “J’ai bon fromage de Champaigne;
  Or i a fromage de Brie!”

  ("Buy my cheese from Champagne,
  And my cheese from Brie!”)

Eustache Deschamps went so far as to say that cheese was the only good thing which could possibly come from Brie.

The “Menagier de Paris” praises several kinds of cheeses, the names of which it would now be difficult to trace, owing to their frequent changes during four hundred years; but, according to the Gallic author of this collection, a cheese to be presentable at table, was required to possess certain qualities (in proverbial Latin, “Non Argus, nee Helena, nee Maria Magdalena,” &c.), thus expressed in French rhyme:—­

  “Non mie (pas) blanc comme Helaine,
  Non mie (pas) plourant comme Magdelaine,
  Non Argus (a cent yeux), mais du tout avugle (aveugle)
  Et aussi pesant comme un bugle (boeuf),
  Contre le pouce soit rebelle,
  Et qu’il ait ligneuse cotelle (epaisse croute)
  Sans yeux, sans plourer, non pas blanc,
  Tigneulx, rebelle, bien pesant.”

  ("Neither-white like Helena,
  Nor weeping as Magdelena,
  Neither Argus, nor yet quite blind,
  And having too a thickish rind,
  Resisting somewhat to the touch,
  And as a bull should weigh as much;
  Not eyeless, weeping, nor quite white,
  But firm, resisting, not too light.”)