List of French cheeses

This is a list of cheeses from France. Traditionally, there are from 350 to 400 distinct types of French cheese grouped into eight categories 'les huit familles de fromage'. There can be many varieties within each type of cheese, leading some to claim closer to 1,000 different types of French cheese.^[1]

Some French cheeses

Cheese seller in France

Protected Designation of Origin

Under the Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union, certain established cheeses, including many French cheeses, are covered by a Protected Designation of Origin and other, less stringent designations of geographical origin for traditional specialities (for details see the French Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée (AOC) system, the Denominazione di Origine Controllata (DOC) system used in Italy, and the Denominación de origen system used in Spain).

A complete list of agricultural products with an EU Protected Designation of Origin (PDO), Protected Geographical Indication (PGI), or Traditional Speciality Guaranteed (TSG), listed alphabetically by nation, is at the Europa Agriculture site.

French cheese production is classified under four categories, and PDO/AOC rules dictate which category(ies) each protected cheese may be assigned to:^[2]

• Fermier: A farmhouse cheese, which is produced on the farm where the milk is produced.
• Artisanal: A producer producing cheese in relatively small quantities using milk from their own farm, but may also purchase milk from local farms.
• Coopérative: A dairy with local milk producers in an area that have joined to produce cheese. In larger coopératives quantities of cheese produced may be relatively large, akin to some industriel producers (many may be classed as factory-made^[3]).
• Industriel: A factory-made cheese from milk sourced locally or regionally, perhaps all over France (depending on the AOC/PDO regulations for specific cheeses).

List of protected French cheeses

A map of major AOC cheeses; the size of the cheese symbol equates to the size of production

56 cheeses are classified, protected, and regulated under French law. The majority are classified as Appellation d'origine contrôlée (AOC), the highest level of protection. Some are also protected under the less stringent but still legally regulated designation Label Régional (LR). A few French cheeses are protected under the European Union's Protected Geographic Indication designation (PGI). Many familiar generic types, like Boursin, are not covered. It may come as a surprise to see varieties of Emmental cheese protected as a French cheese. This list differs from those of AOC status.

Cheese	Year designated AOC	Producing region	Type of milk	Designation
Abondance	1990	Savoie	Cow	AOC
Banon	2003	Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur	Goat	AOC
Beaufort	1968	Savoie	Cow	AOC
Bleu d'Auvergne	1975	Auvergne	Cow	AOC
Bleu des Causses	1979	Midi-Pyrénées	Cow	AOC
Bleu de Gex, du Haut-Jura, or de Septmoncel	1977	Franche-Comté	Cow	AOC
Bleu du Vercors-Sassenage	1998	Rhône-Alpes	Cow	AOC
Brie de Meaux	1980	Ile-de-France	Cow	AOC
Brie de Melun	1980	Ile-de-France	Cow	AOC
Brocciu Cara or Brocciu	1983	Corsica	Sheep	AOC
Cabecou	1988	Midi-Pyrénées	Goat	AOC
Cancoillotte	n/a	Franche-Comté	Cow	LR
Cantal, Fourme de Cantal, or Cantalet	1956	Auvergne	Cow	AOC
Camembert de Normandie	1983	Normandy	Cow	AOC
Chabichou du Poitou	1990	Poitou-Charentes	Goat	AOC
Chaource	1970	Champagne-Ardenne	Cow	AOC
Chevrotin	2002	Savoie	Goat	AOC
Comté	1952	Franche-Comté	Cow	AOC
Crottin de Chavignol	1976	Centre (French region)	Goat	AOC
Emmental de Savoie	n/a	Savoie	Cow	PGI
Emmental français est-central	n/a	Franche-Comté	Cow	PGI
Époisses de Bourgogne	2004	Bourgogne	Cow	AOC
Fourme d'Ambert	1972	Auvergne	Cow	AOC
Fourme de Montbrison	1972	Auvergne	Cow	AOC
Laguiole	1961	Auvergne	Cow	AOC
Langres	1991	Champagne-Ardenne	Cow	AOC
Livarot	1972	Normandy	Cow	AOC
Macônnais	2006	Bourgogne	Goat	AOC
Maroilles or Marolles	1976	Nord-Pas-de-Calais	Cow	AOC
Mimolette	n/a	Nord-Pas-de-Calais	Cow	LR
Mont d'or, or Vacherin du Haut-Doubs	2006	Franche-Comté	Cow	AOC
Morbier	2000	Franche-Comté	Cow	AOC
Munster or Munster-Géromé	1969	Alsace and Vosges Département in Lorraine (region)	Cow	AOC
Neufchâtel	1969	Normandy	Cow	AOC
Ossau-lraty	1980	Aquitaine	Sheep	AOC
Pélardon	2000	Languedoc-Roussillon	Goat	AOC
Picodon de l'Ardèche or de la Drôme	1983	Rhône-Alpes	Goat	AOC
Pont-l'Évêque	1976	Normandy	Cow	AOC
Pouligny-Saint-Pierre	1972	Centre (French region)	Goat	AOC
Reblochon or Reblochon de Savoie	1958	Savoie	Cow	AOC
Rocamadour	1996	Midi-Pyrénées	Goat	AOC
Roquefort	1925	Midi-Pyrénées	Sheep	AOC
Sainte-Maure de Touraine	1990	Centre (French region)	Goat	AOC
Saint-Nectaire	1955	Auvergne	Cow	AOC
Saint-Félicien	n/a	Rhône-Alpes	Cow	LR
Salers	1979	Auvergne	Cow	AOC
Selles-sur-Cher	1975	Centre (French region)	Goat	AOC
Tome des Bauges	2002	Savoie	Cow	AOC
Tomme de Savoie	n/a	Savoie	Cow	PGI
Tomme des Pyrénées	n/a	Midi-Pyrénées	Cow	PGI
Vacherin (see Mont d'Or)
Valençay	1998	Centre (French region)	Goat	AOC

Popular French cheeses

1. Camembert (AOC)
2. Brie de Meaux (AOC)
3. Roquefort (AOC)
4. Boursin
5. Reblochon (AOC)
6. Munster (AOC)
7. Pont l'Évêque (AOC)
8. Époisses (AOC)
9. Chèvre
10. Tomme de Savoie (AOC)

AOC = protected by the Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée

Other French cheeses

Abbaye de Belloc Abbaye de Tamié Bleu de Bresse Boursin cheese Brillat-Savarin Brie Noir (Black Brie) Broccio Passu Bucheron Cabecou Cancoillotte Carré de l'Est Cathare Chamois d'Or Chaumes cheese Coeur de Neufchatel Coulommiers Coutances Délice de Bourgogne Délice du Calvados Édel de Cléron Explorateur Fromager d'Affinois Gaperon

Lavort Mont des Cats Mimolette Niolo Olivet cendré Port Salut Raclette Rigotte de Condrieu Rochebarron Roue de Brielove Saint Albray Saint-André Saint-Felicien Saint-Marcellin Saint-Paulin Tarentais Tome des Bauges Tomme Boudane Tomme Butone Tomme au Fenouil Tomme du Revard Vacherin Mont d'Or Vieux-Boulogne

See also

• List of cheeses
• List of Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée cheeses((there are loads of different types)).

External links

• Pictures Gallery of French Cheese (and some else)
• Pictures and detailed information on French Cheese

Quotes

"A country producing almost 360 different types of cheese cannot die."

Winston Churchill in June 1940

"Comment voulez-vous gouverner un pays qui a deux cent quarante-six variétés de fromage?"

("How can you govern a country which has two hundred and forty-six varieties of cheese?")

Charles de Gaulle (from Les Mots du Général, Ernest Mignon (1962))

"Un repas sans fromage est une belle à qui il manque un œil."

("A meal without cheese is a beautiful woman with an eye missing.")

Brillat-Savarin (from La Physiologie du goût)

"Cheese has always been a food that both sophisticated and simple humans love."

M.F.K. Fisher (from "How to Cook a Wolf", 1942)

Notes

1. ^ Institut Fromages et Sante[1]
2. ^ Masui, T.; Tomoko, Y., Hodgson, R., Robuchon, J. (2004). French Cheeses. DK. ISBN 1-4053-0666-1. 
3. ^ Barthélemy, Roland; Sperat-Czar, Arnaud (2004). Cheeses of the world. Hachette Illustrated (London). ISBN 184430115X.