PARIS (AP) — The contradiction of the trim Parisian and the butter croissant now has a storefront.Le Butter Shop, billed as Paris’ first boutique devoted entirely to butter, opened last month a short walk from the Eiffel Tower — with 30 varieties from small family producers in Brittany, the Loire Valley and northern France.France eats around 8 kilograms (18 pounds) of butter per person a year, so says the agriculture ministry. It’s among the most in the world. Yet the home of Chanel and Dior keeps an obesity rate well below the average for wealthy nations — 14%, compared to an average of 19% for the developed countries that make up the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. At the new boutique, customers taste by the spoonful before buying anything from a 10-gram pat to a kilogram (2.2-pound) block: the classics, then shallot, pepper, seaweed, wild garlic, fine herbs and lemon with green pepper.
At the sweet end: vanilla, raspberry, strawberry and chocolate.“Most people don’t expect to like a raspberry butter or to like chocolate butter,” said owner Erwan Leo, 34. “And when they try it, this is where they’re just like, ‘Oh wow, OK.’”Leo, who also runs a wine-tasting business, said butter should be used like wine, to make a meal better — “the goal isn’t to get drunk.”
