So I set off for the airport in a big “I am going to miss my plane ” rush. I remember that on leaving Okinawa nearly all the French community and Jan the Man, with the wild eyed look of Ben Gunn begged me to bring back cheese.
I screech into a handy cheese shop and buy two beautiful Camemberts,
Camembert
two delicious Munsters
Munster
and three like totally awesome Banons.
From Provence
I get to the check in/security check with seconds to spare but I am busted. “you can’t take those cheeses onto the plane.”
“Why not?”
“Because they are liquids.”
“Say what?”
They take my beautiful cheeses and bin them.
I have to say that this is Marseille. The people involved were French and there was mutual recognition of the tragedy of the situation.
We hugged, cried on each others shoulders and went away sadder and wiser.
The Quiet Ripple Defines The Pond 
oh noooo how sad
The thought of several hours on a plane with two Munsters maturing nicely is somewhat scary.
Ground crew when you landed would have been looking for a corpse.
“Hard cheese” was the old schoolboy comment when things went wrong. Hard cheese is the answer here also it seems. Apparently soft cheeses are classed as ‘gels’ and hence potentially explosive – though Rosemary’s comment is also apposite in terms of their life-threatening properties. Rather similar to the restrictions on carrying durians in aircraft cabins. Here’s a link to a story that shows you are not alone in trying to exit France with cheese in your hand luggage:
http://www.jaunted.com/story/2011/4/22/162915/493/travel/How+to+Smuggle+Cheese+Through+French+Airport+Security
To avoid future tragedies have you tried Sakura cheese, won a couple of Gold Medals in Switzerland? Belive that it is only available in the Spring so you’ve a while to wait.
Apparently there’s a bunch of Japanese artisan makers now:
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fg20090515f1.html
Interesting to see how they measure up.