Cheese Crime in Paris: The Viral Dinner Party Photo That Shocked Us All
The Earful Tower: Paris
Oliver Gee
4.8 • 796 Ratings
🗓️ 5 June 2026
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Updated Re-Release: This episode originally aired a few years ago and has since become one of The Earful Tower's most beloved classics. We're bringing it back today because some things are simply too good - and too instructive - to stay buried in the archives.
It started with a photo. A single, damning image shared on The Earful Tower's social media: an 18-month-old Comté, massacred at a Parisian dinner party by the hand of a newly arrived American. The picture went viral inside the Earful community almost instantly, and the culprit, Will Weaver, a Texan fresh off the plane, became the talk of the group. So we did what any responsible France-based podcast would do: we launched a full investigation.
In this episode, you'll hear from genuinely mortified cheesemongers, some committed dramatic performances from Earful VIPs, and crucially the full account from Will Weaver himself, the man holding the knife that fateful evening. Yes, we find out exactly what he did, why he did it, and whether he has shown any remorse whatsoever. We also get into the real, legitimate, no-nonsense guide to how you are actually supposed to cut a Comté — because this is a safe space for learning, not just judgement.
A word of warning before you dive in: a lot of this episode is firmly tongue-in-cheek, so take the drama with a generous pinch of salt. The cheese-cutting advice, however, is completely genuine. If the episode sends you running to the nearest fromagerie, the spots mentioned in the show is worth a visit: Griffon Fromager in Paris's 7th arrondissement (23 bis Av. de la Motte-Picquet, 75007 Paris) and we also recorded at bar of the legendary Le Bristol Paris (112 Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, 75008 Paris). Both are excellent.
The music is from Pres Maxson.
This episode is brought to you by The Earful Tower Tours. Whether you're exploring the Marais, scaling Montmartre, or wandering the Latin Quarter, our walking tours are among the highest-rated in Paris — and the best possible way to experience this podcast in the flesh.
The Earful Tower stays independent thanks to its members. For just $10 a month, you'll unlock a growing vault of extras: bonus episodes, live video replays, special event invites, and an annually updated PDF guide to Paris that's worth its weight in Comté. You can get started in under a minute via Patreon or Substack — and if you're already a member, thank you. You're the reason this exists.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello there, Oliver here from the Earful Tower podcast. We're diving into the archives for a classic episode today. |
| 0:07.9 | So classic that someone brought it up with me out of the clear blue sky yesterday. |
| 0:13.7 | And it's the cheese one. The cheese one, the American man who cut some cheese and divided a community. |
| 0:23.4 | Starts with a limerick, continues with the voice of some cheese experts, some earful tower |
| 0:29.2 | listeners tune in and then we get Will Weaver himself explaining what went wrong. |
| 0:36.7 | So this is from the archives. It's C is for cheese. |
| 0:40.9 | Last time I did the alphabet season. C was for something else, but I prefer C is for cheese. |
| 0:46.8 | So you get to hear that today. Earlier in the week, I hope you listened already to the real new |
| 0:52.8 | episode of the week, which was C is for Carnivali, |
| 0:55.9 | my story, my personal story of being inside my favorite museum before it was open to the public. |
| 1:01.1 | But today, it's cheese. A huge shout out to the Eiffel Tower members on Patreon and Substack |
| 1:06.3 | who keep this going. You can find links in the show notes. Enjoy this classic episode from the past. Here we go. |
| 1:14.2 | There once was a young man from Texas. We've a mutual friend that connects us. And this Texan said, |
| 1:21.6 | please let me cut the cheese and the dinner became a dog's breakfast. |
| 1:29.3 | This Earful Tower listeners is a very unusual podcast episode. |
| 1:35.1 | If you follow on social media, you probably already have an idea where this is going. |
| 1:40.1 | If you're not, you're missing out the airful tower, Instagram, Facebook, everything. |
| 1:45.1 | The idea is, I was at a dinner party the other night. |
| 1:49.0 | A bunch of people, no French people, a bunch of expats, foreigners, whatever you want to call us, sitting around. |
| 1:57.6 | Dinner was lovely. |
| 1:59.3 | A cheese platter was served. |
| 2:13.6 | And one of the guests, who was American, got his knife and cut into the Comte cheese in a fashion that raised eyebrows at the table. I was motivated to get my phone out and take a picture of this cheese. |
... |
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