The 10 Most Famous Cheeses in France: Will Your Favorite French Cheese Make the List?

One of the many fabulous things about living in France is the cheese. There are over 365 different varieties, quite a few more actually, which is easily one for every day of the year. The mind boggles.

I’ve been on a mission to try as many as I can, which isn’t exactly a hardship, especially washed down with a glass of pineau des Charentes, not to be confused with pinot the grape. It’s more like a port, really. And my favorite thing at any restaurant is when they wheel out a cheese trolley. Honestly, I’ve died and gone to cheese heaven.

Anyway, we all know the usual culprits: Roquefort, Brie, and Camembert. But what about all the others? Which ones are voted the best cheeses in France?

Let’s tuck in.

10. Beaufort

We start high in the Savoie Alps with Beaufort, a big, golden, hard cow’s milk cheese that the famous food writer Brillat-Savarin once called the prince of gruyères. It’s made from the milk of cows grazing on alpine pastures, and the very best of it, the Chalet d’Alpage, comes from a single summer herd up in the high mountains. 

Firm, fruity, and faintly nutty, it’s the cheese that makes a fondue sing. If you’ve ever had a really good fondue in a ski resort, Beaufort was very probably in the pot.

9. Crottin de Chavignol

Now for a goat, and a cheeky little one at that. Crottin de Chavignol is a small disc of goat’s cheese from the Loire, around Sancerre, and yes, the name does mean dung, a nod to the shape it takes as it dries and hardens. 

Don’t let that put you off. Young, it’s soft, fresh, and mild. Aged, it turns firm, dry, and properly punchy.

Here in the Charente, we’re goat cheese country too, so this cheese is close to my heart. Pop a slice on toast with a drizzle of honey, and you’ll see what all the fuss is about.

8. Époisses

Brace yourself, because Époisses is a stinker. This soft, orange, washed-rind cheese from Burgundy is bathed in marc de Bourgogne, a local grape brandy, as it ripens, which gives it a smell that could clear a room and a flavor that is absolutely glorious. Spoon it out when it’s properly ripe, and it’s almost liquid.

It nearly died out altogether before one family revived it in the 1950s, and it’s said to have been a favorite of Napoleon. There’s even a tall tale that it’s banned on public transport in France because of the pong.

 I can’t promise that one’s true, but I can promise you’ll know when someone nearby has bought some.

7. Cantal

Cantal is one of the oldest cheeses in the whole country. The Romans were eating it some two thousand years ago, and Pliny the Elder mentioned it, which is no small claim to fame. 

It comes from the Auvergne, deep in the rugged Massif Central, and it’s a firm, pressed cow’s milk cheese that won’t feel a million miles from a good farmhouse cheddar.

You’ll see it sold at three ages: jeune, young and mild, entre-deux, in between, and vieux, aged and tangy. I’m firmly in the vieux camp, but each to their own.

6. Munster

Another one for the brave. Munster comes from the Vosges mountains over in Alsace, and it was first made by monks centuries ago. It’s a soft, washed-rind cheese with a pungent, farmyardy whiff and a surprisingly mellow, melt-in-the-mouth middle. 

The locals often eat it sprinkled with cumin seeds, which sounds odd but works a treat. Don’t judge this one by its nose.

5. Reblochon

If you’ve ever had a tartiflette, that gloriously indulgent Savoyard dish of potatoes, bacon, onions, and melted cheese, then you’ve already met Reblochon. It’s a soft, washed-rind cow’s milk cheese from Haute-Savoie.

The name comes from the old word reblocher, which roughly means to pinch the cow a second time. Medieval farmers would only half milk their cows when the landlord’s man came round to tax them on the yield, then sneak back afterward for a second, richer milking once he’d gone. 

That cheeky second milking made Reblochon. You’ve got to love a cheese born of dodging the taxman.

4. Camembert de Normandie

Now we’re into proper household-name territory. Camembert is that little round of soft, bloomy-rinded cow’s milk cheese in a wooden box, and when it’s ripe and oozing, there are few finer things on earth.

The story goes that a Normandy farmer named Marie Harel first made it back in 1791, with a few tips from a priest fleeing the Revolution. Whether that’s gospel or a good yarn, nobody quite knows, but the real thing, Camembert de Normandie, must be made with raw milk and carries an AOP. 

3. Brie de Meaux

If Camembert is the people’s favorite, Brie is its grander cousin. Brie de Meaux, from the Île-de-France just east of Paris, is a wide, soft, creamy wheel with a snowy rind, and it has a royal claim to fame. 

Back in 1815, at the Congress of Vienna, the great powers of Europe reportedly held a little contest to find the finest cheese on the continent, and Brie was crowned the king of cheeses. Not a bad title to hang on to for two hundred years.

There are several Bries, but Brie de Meaux is the one with AOP status and pedigree. Let it come to room temperature before you eat it. Trust me on that.

2. Roquefort

The big blue. Roquefort is made not from cow’s milk but from the milk of Lacaune ewes, and it’s aged in the cool, damp Combalou caves at Roquefort-sur-Soulzon in the Aveyron, where a natural mold called Penicillium roqueforti gives it those famous blue-green veins.

Legend has it that a lovesick shepherd left his lunch of bread and cheese in one of those caves, came back weeks later, and discovered it had turned into something extraordinary. 

It was the very first French cheese to be granted protected status, all the way back in 1925, and it’s so good it’s often called the cheese of kings. Salty, sharp, and a little bit dangerous, it’s magnificent with a sweet wine or a glass of port.

1. Comté

And here it is, the number one cheese. Comté comes from the Jura mountains in eastern France, and it’s a big, hard, raw cow’s milk cheese made in enormous wheels of around 40 kilos, each one crafted in a little village dairy called a fruitière. 

It’s aged anywhere from four months to a few years, and the flavor shifts as it matures, from fresh and fruity when young to deep, nutty, almost caramel and brothy when old. No two wheels taste quite the same.

It’s the best-selling AOP cheese in the entire country, outselling even Roquefort and Reblochon by a country mile, and it sits right at the top of the connoisseur taste rankings too. Loved by a nation, versatile, and endlessly moreish, it’s the one I always have in my fridge. If you only try one cheese on this list, make it a well-aged Comté. You won’t look back.

How to enjoy them like a local

A quick word on how the French actually serve all this glorious cheese, because it isn’t on a board with grapes and crackers. It gets its own course, served after the main and before dessert, usually just three or four cheeses with a basket of bread and maybe a green salad. No chutney, no fancy biscuits. Just the cheese, appreciated for what it is.

And if you’re putting together a board of your own for an apéro with friends, the trick is variety. Pick one from each family: something hard like Comté or Beaufort, something soft like Brie or Camembert, a blue like Roquefort, and a goat. That little spread covers every taste at the table.

But honestly? Nothing in this world beats the moment a waiter wheels a groaning cheese trolley up to your table and tells you to take whatever you fancy. That, for me, is cheese heaven.

So tell me, which would top your list? Are you a stinky Époisses sort, or does a safe slice of Brie win your heart every time?

À bientôt, et bon appétit.