Thanks so much Iratherfly. That chart is very helpful to me. It's a structure to organize and analyze what I am tasting without going into the underlying chemistry. Of course it still doesn't address the difference between what I might think of as, say, mushroomy and what you might say. I think that will come from tasting more and more different cheeses and and developing a palette. Here's a cheese!
And, guess what, I found a source for those rye straw mats! If you go to the forum's list of supply stores and look at France, there is Coquard, a web store. It has all kinds of interesting, drool inducing, cheese items, all described in charmingly quirky English, including rye straw mats. Everything is listed as"price on request" and I don't know what the minimum quantity is or the shipping cost, but there it is.
Dinerdish