I am told that the cheese, Valencay Du Berry which is a beautiful goat cheese that is covered in ash and shaped like a truncated pyramid is mad in its particular shape for historical reasons.As the story goes, this cheese was developed during the time of Napoleon's ill conceived campaign in Egypt. It was anticipated that Napoleon's trouts would conquer Egypt and this cheese was made in the shape of pyramids in celebration of this conquest. Napoleon did not inform nor prepare hos troupes properly they did not have adequate foot wear, water or supplies for the climate, additionally they were also traveling with civilians. In the end only half of his troupes and entourage survived and they returned with lots of cool artistic and cultural information but nonetheless defeated. The cheese makers lopped off the tops of those little goat cheese pyramids because of the defeat and they have been made in that shape ever since. I believe this campaign to conquer Egypt happened in the late 1700's perhaps around 1770-1780, my knowledge of dates is inferior to my memory for stories.

I have another story that I think is about reblochon that i will ssave for another day. I will need to confirm if that is indeed the cheese that goes with the story. I have a thing about cheese stories. I would love to hear some.