Say Cheese to the New French Travel Trend

Who doesn’t love cheese? I live in France, so it’s almost obligatory to love it as it’s served with every meal. It even has its own course here and isn’t an either-or option with dessert. But did you know, cheese is now responsible for a new surge in tourism to France?

Who’d have thought that people are picking the rural areas of France where cheese is produced over visiting the Caribbean? I mean, I get it, why wouldn’t you? France has over 1,000 different varieties of cheese, each with their own story to tell.

From the new museum in Paris dedicated to cheese to the village of Camembert in Normandy, where Napoleon III loved the cheese so much he had it sent to the Tuilleries in huge quantities. French history isn’t all about wars and religion; you’ll be amazed at the history behind some of the fabulous French cheeses we love to indulge in.

So what is it about cheese that has the Americans flocking to France instead of hitting the beaches of far flung places?

Why Cheese Is Responsible for the New French Travel Trend

Here’s a stat for you: according to Future Market Insights, over the next ten years, the travel market for food experiences in France will shoot up by approximately 16%, and a large part of that is to do with cheese. And last year, Pierre Brisson opened Musée du Fromage in Paris in Le Marais, an entire museum dedicated to the history of cheese in France. 

The new cheese museum packs a lot into its small space. Bilingual exhibits explain the craft of cheesemaking, from aging to flavor, while interactive screens let you dive further in. The shop brings together cheeses from every corner of France, with cowbells chiming in the background to set the scene.

There are plenty of places in France where cheese takes center stage. You can tour aging cellars, explore cheese museums, stop by visitor centers, or join tasting sessions. Some regions even have dedicated Route de Fromage trails where you can meet producers and wander the pastures that give each cheese its unique flavor.

The French have a saying that the land itself speaks through what you eat and drink. It’s a tradition most people recognize in wine, but cheese tells the same story. The terroir, soil, climate, and centuries of know-how all leave their mark on the flavor. Locals take this as second nature, yet visitors are now beginning to travel through France with cheese as their guide.

Going on the French Cheese Trail

Cheese trails stretch across much of France, but the mountains hold some of the most distinctive stories. In the Soulzon valley, part of the volcanic Massif Central, Roquefort Société shows how nature shaped the fate of a cheese.

Millions of years ago, cracks formed in the rock that now funnel cool, damp air through the caves, creating the perfect conditions for aging Roquefort. A tasting at the end of the visit brings out its salty, creamy depth in a way that stays with you.

Corsica offers a different flavor of adventure along the Route des Sens Authentiques, which winds past producers of wine, charcuterie, and the island’s famous brocciu. High in the mountains near Corte, a stop with a sheep farmer turned into a shared glass of wine and a glimpse of daily life at the heart of the island.

In the Jura mountains of eastern France, the town of Poligny is home to La Maison du Comté, where visitors learn that it takes 400 liters of milk to create just one wheel of Comté. The cows graze on around 30 different plants, and that variety gives the cheese its distinct taste. Since moving into a new building in 2021, the site has seen visitor numbers soar compared with just a few years ago.

La Maison du Comté links into a whole network of regional stops, from small cooperative fruitières to impressive aging cellars. One of the most impressive is Fort Saint-Antoine, a former 19th-century military barracks where 100,000 wheels of Comté mature in cool stone chambers. It doesn’t get much better for me, all that history and cheese in one place.

Known as the cathedral of Comté, it’s here that master affineurs tap each wheel with a small hammer to judge quality, a traditional skill that continues to surprise travelers. Numbers have climbed steadily here, too, with tens of thousands now coming each year.

In nearby Lons-le-Saunier, the Laughing Cow Museum, La Maison de la Vache qui rit, traces the rise of one of the world’s most recognizable brands. Born from a family producing Comté, the company embraced new machinery in the 1920s that boosted production of its foil-wrapped triangles. Clever advertising throughout the 20th century transformed the smiling red cow into a global icon, one that continues to draw visitors today.

In Normandy, the village of Camembert has long been tied to one of France’s most famous cheeses. The story goes that Napoleon III was so taken with Camembert that he had his train stop there so he could enjoy it on the spot. He later ordered it to be sent in large quantities to the Tuileries Palace in Paris, helping to turn a local specialty into a national favorite. Today, visitors can still trace the cheese’s roots in the rolling countryside where it first made its mark.

Closer to home in the Charente, goat’s cheese is a way of life. Small farms across the region produce everything from fresh, tangy rounds to aged cheeses with a nutty depth. The most famous is Chabichou du Poitou, which has been made here since at least the Middle Ages and now carries AOC status. Pick one up at a local market and you’ll see how the rolling fields and limestone soil shape its flavor just as much as the goats themselves.