Butter me up: Paris gets its first boutique devoted to France’s favorite fat - Dining and Cooking

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.

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Packs of butter with different flavors are displayed in a refrigerator at Le Butter Shop, the first shop devoted entirely to butter in Paris, France, Tuesday Aug. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

An employee gives information to a customer at Le Butter Shop, the first shop devoted entirely to butter in Paris, France, Tuesday Aug. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

Packs of butter with different flavors are displayed in a refrigerator at Le Butter Shop, the first shop devoted entirely to butter in Paris, France, Tuesday Aug. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

Owner of Le Butter Shop, Erwan Leo, poses in his first shop devoted entirely to butter in Paris, France, Tuesday Aug. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

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.”

Mehreen Himayat, 25, and Salman Bin Ehsan, 27, of Dublin, Ireland — a country known for its rich golden butter — saw videos of the shop at home in Dublin, Ireland, before traveling to France.

“We came here just to taste the butter,” Bin Ehsan told The Associated Press.

Alexandra Incolano, a 36-year-old who lives near Paris, came to the shop with a specific mission.

“I’m getting married on Saturday and I’m going to have a cheese centerpiece,” Incolano said. “I saw on Instagram that they had lots of great butters and I thought it could be a little something extra for my guests, a little surprise.”

The reputation of French butter is also attracting visitors who work professionally with food.

“I know that there’s some of the best butter in France, but I’ve never tried any,” said Aleksandr Balaban, a 31-year-old Estonian chef working in Norway. “I work in Norway, they really like salted butter, and my friend asked me to bring him some French butter as well.”

Leo said the secret to savoring fatty butter is to be like Parisians: Walk a lot, and practice moderation. “We don’t go beyond four tartines a day,” he said, referring to a French open-faced sandwich.

Tasting butter works like tasting wine, he said: “You have to grab your spoon, you put it on your palate, on your tongue, it has to melt a little bit, and then the flavors are going to start coming one by one.”

“The Italians choose olive oil, we choose butter,” Leo said. “We learn how to master it.”

Neighborhood supermarkets give butter a vocabulary: beurre doux, demi-sel and beurre salé, sometimes studded with salt crystals. Bakers fold it into croissants; cooks whisk it into sauces.

Butter is the fat of France’s dairy-producing north and west, and of Brittany above all.

Salt preserved it before refrigeration, and Brittany’s exemption from the gabelle, France’s old salt tax, kept Breton butter salted as much of the country went unsalted.

The legacy lives on in crêpes, salted caramel and kouign-amann, whose Breton name means “butter cake.”

Leo’s producers churn from selected cows and higher-fat milk; an extra 2 or 3 percentage points, he said, “really makes a huge difference.”

The tiny shop has drawn crowds through social media and now has a staff of four.

“From day one, it’s been crazy,” Leo said. “Most people come in with wanting to try one or two butters, they end up trying 25 butters because they’re just so curious.”

Next up: a croissant-flavored butter, and perhaps violet.

“This is limitless,” Leo said.

Packs of butter with different flavors are displayed in a refrigerator at Le Butter Shop, the first shop devoted entirely to butter in Paris, France, Tuesday Aug. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

An employee gives information to a customer at Le Butter Shop, the first shop devoted entirely to butter in Paris, France, Tuesday Aug. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

Packs of butter with different flavors are displayed in a refrigerator at Le Butter Shop, the first shop devoted entirely to butter in Paris, France, Tuesday Aug. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

Owner of Le Butter Shop, Erwan Leo, poses in his first shop devoted entirely to butter in Paris, France, Tuesday Aug. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

VENICE, Italy (AP) — Robert Pattinson didn’t set out to play Chris Hansen in “Primetime.” But somewhere along the way, it just became “irresistible.”

“I was trying to mold the part to be the best part to play for somebody else, and then I got more and more attached to it,” Pattinson said Saturday at the Venice Film Festival, where the film is having its world premiere.

The 40-year-old English actor started out as a producer on the film about the NBC Dateline show “To Catch a Predator.” But while he and his collaborators found that they couldn’t help but imitate Hansen while chatting about the project, he “found his accent very difficult.”

“This more than any other part that I’ve done, just grunt work,” Pattinson said.

He was also part of the reason directing duties went to Lance Oppenheim, who had only directed documentaries up until this point. Oppenheim knew of Chris Hansen and was interested in the phenomenon he’d created. However, something clicked into place when Oppenheim’s wife gifted him a Cameo video and he saw Hansen performing as himself.

“To me this was a great character, a great subject,” Oppenheim said. “A person who became a persona … a person who embraced the meme of himself.”

“Primetime,” which was written by Ajon Singh, has already inspired discourse and headlines with just its trailer and subject matter. It’s based on journalist Luke Dittrich’s “Esquire” article “Tonight on Dateline This Man Will Die,” which explores a 2006 sting operation on Texas assistant district attorney Bill Conradt. He died by suicide as police officers descended on his home with the show’s television cameras outside.

Oppenheim, in his director’s statement, said that he “wanted to trace the disparate ambitions of people who existed inside this apparatus — a journalistic crusader, a mercenary TV producer and a wide-eyed Hollywood dreamer — converging into a moment of crisis.”

Hansen was not involved in the making of the movie and has made several public comments about it, including that he had always thought Denis Leary should have played him and questioning the motives of the filmmakers. He was invited to see the movie before the festival, but took issue with the NDA he was asked to sign beforehand. There are also reports that he’s bought advertising to play in front of “Primetime” theatrical showings when it’s in theaters starting Sept. 25.

When asked to comment on the ads, Pattinson said he just hopes that Hansen likes the movie.

“The more you watch the show, there’s something magnetic about his presence,” Pattinson said. “Something he’s doing is the reason why people are still talking about that show 20 years later.”

The film also marks the acting debut of singer Phoebe Bridgers, who found it challenging.

“It was certainly super intimidating,” Bridgers said. “At first when Lance asked me I was like, ‘no way dude.’”

For Pattinson, “Primetime” is one more buzzy performance in a banner year that’s already included memorable performances in hit films from “The Drama” to “The Odyssey” and with “Dune: Part Three” still to come.

With his schedule booked for about two years straight and a new baby at home, Pattinson went straight “The Drama” to “Primetime” and then to “The Odyssey.”

“I definitely can hear a little Chris Hansen in ‘The Odyssey’ when I watch it,” he laughed.

But, he added, “once you get the momentum going, it’s actually, strangely, not that hard.”

Pattinson isn’t the only famous Brit on the Lido Saturday. Oasis members Noel and Liam Gallager are also around for the world premiere of their reunion tour documentary “Oasis: Don’t Look Back in Anger.”

With many movie star moments already in the rearview, from George Clooney’s lifetime achievement award to the emotional ovation for John Malkovich’s performance in “Wild Horse Nine,” the combination of Pattinson and Oasis on the same day is shaping up to be a high-wattage pinnacle for this year’s festival.

For coverage of the 2026 Venice Film Festival, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/venice-film-festival

Robert Pattinson arrives at the 83rd edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, on Saturday, Sept. 5, 2026. (Photo by Alessandra Tarantino/Invision/AP)

John Malkovich poses for photographers at the red carpet for the film ‘Wild Horse Nine’ during the 83rd edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, on Thursday, Sept. 3, 2026. (Photo by Alessandra Tarantino/Invision/AP)

George Clooney, left, recipient of the golden lion for lifetime achievement and Laura Dern pose for photographers during the 83rd edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, on Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2026. (Photo by Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP)

FILE – Liam Gallagher, left, and Noel Gallagher of Oasis perform on Sunday, Aug. 31, 2025, in East Rutherford, N.J. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)