The first step was buying a book called "French Cheeses" that covers over 350 cheeses from every region of France. This book could quite possibly be the most perfect reference book known to man. For each cheese it lists what kind of milk was used (cow, goat, or ewe), what region of France it is from, what time of year to eat the cheese, the shape, weight of a wheel, fat content (d'oh didn't need to know that), it's AOC category, and what type of wine to drink with it ! Cheese and the proper wine to complement it ! Throw in a fresh loaf of bread and you have the Holy Trinity of the table.

The Holy Trinity of the Table. That little phrase was coined by a French cheese making monk in the late 15th century when he noticed that bread, wine, and cheese closely resembled the standard Holy Trinity. Charles de Gaulle, that famous French thrower in of the towel, that famous waver of the white flag, once said "How can anyone be expected to govern a country with 325 cheeses ?" He was probably pondering that very question when the Germans zoomed right past him and took over his government. But we digress.

Anyway, AOC stands for Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée and applies to wines, dairies, and farm products. It guarantees that the product has been produced at the highest quality for that region, under the most controlled of circumstances. The AOC is controlled by laws and is granted to a cheese that meets all the standards for type of milk used, allowed regions, methods used, and length of affinage, or ripening. Violation of any of these standards can result in fines and prison time. So they take it pretty seriously. A type of cheese will apply for  an AOC label, and if it meets the standards, the AOC label is awarded. The AOC defines four different categories of production-

• Fermier - made on a farm using only raw milk from animals raised only on that farm. Usually the best tasting cheeses. Small quantities are produced and usually sold at regional markets or local fromageries.

• Artisanal - Cheese made from milk either from animals raised on the farm or brought in from other farms. Small to medium amounts of cheese are made and sold in regional markets or town fromageries.

• Coopératives - The cheese is made at a single dairy with milk supplied by the cooperative. Medium to large amounts of cheese are produced and sold everywhere.

• Industriel - The milk is bought from a number of producers, sometimes from distant regions. Large quantities of cheese are produced and sold everywhere, sometimes exported.

The rest of this page will cover some of the better cheeses we have tried and would recommend to anyone. See if you can find them in your better local markets and let us know what you think ! We like soft cheeses, the runnier the better. The best way to tell if a cheese is gooey enough is to fling a chunk of it against the window. If it splats like a bug on a windshield then it is gooey enough. If it just goes thunk and falls on the floor it's too hard. So we tend to score hard cheeses lower and the goopy ones higher, on a  scale of one to five, with 1 being 'won't buy again' to 5 being 'keep a stock on hand at all times'.

  Cheese Log

From the Alsace region and made from raw cows milk. This had a firm pâte, was mild, and didn't have much else going for it. It was bit plain, not gooey enough to give you that mouth feel, but competent enough of a cheese. Affinage of two months. We would give it a 2.3. But then, we tried another Tomme de Montagne in the few weeks before we left that was very nice. That one, whose artisan we do not know, would get a solid 3.5. Just shows that it depends on the cheese, your mood, and what you had it with.

6. Bleu d'Auvergne

This ended up being a much milder bleu than I expected. I have had some bleu's that would knock your socks off. But this one went easy on us. We ate with a traditional baguette. It is made from raw cows milk, 50% fat content. About 9,000 tons are produced each year. It has an affinage of 4 weeks. It had a nice taste, the pâte was soft and crumbly as you would expect. We would give it a 2.8.

7. Bonbel

This one is kind of embarrassing to put on the list. It is the American cheese or France. This is the stuff you can buy in the U.S. wrapped in the red wax. But I bought a big chunk of it cut from a wheel, and didn't realize it until later. But it was decent, so I'll add it to the list. We drank this with some champagne. It had a firm, white pâte with a subtle flavor. Decent, but not inspiring. We give it a 2.2.

9. Corsica

This cheese comes from the island of Corsica, or course, which is part of France despite it's Italian sounding name. Since it is an island it has some characteristics distinct from the mainland. 78 species of fauna grow there that are not found anywhere else. This means the goat and sheep that graze there get a diet different than anywhere, giving the cheese distinct flavors. We tried this with a 2000 Viagnier from Domain Pélaquié. It was quite good, with a firm pâte and came with a whitish-green rind. It's flavor was subtle but still strong, if that makes sense. We would give it a 2.9.

10. Munster-Gerome

Ate this with some 2000 Viagnier from Domain Pélaquié. It was chewalicious ! This cheese came from the Alsace-Lorraine region and is made with cows milk and has a 45% fat content. The cows are Vosgiennes cows imported from Scandinavia in the 18th century. It had a very strong, pungent aroma that was off-putting at first, but the cheese was excellent. It disappeared fast, which is always a good sign. It had a soft, smooth pâte and came in a yellowy wheel. This was a fermier cheese, AOC, and has an affinage of 2-3 months. During the affinage period the wheels are rubbed with a light brine solution, giving the rind a yellowish color. It's a 3.2.

11. Comté

We used this cheese in one of the fine, local specialties: chicken tacos. It worked very well as the cheese held up well against the taco spices. This cheese is a hard cheese, with a robust, nutty flavor. It's called the most popular cheese in France, with over 42,000 tons produced annually, and is used in the Savoie style of fondue, or on a croque-monsieur. It comes from the Jura mountain region, up in the Alps near where we go skiing. It is a cooperative cheese, with the pâte being white and firm. The rind was a grayish-yellow. The AOC is strict for this cheese, with the production of the cheese limited to a small area up around the border with Switzerland. Each year, about 5% of the cheese fails AOC standards. Renneting must take place within 14 hours of the milking. Affinage takes 90 days and must happen at below 66 degrees F and a minimum humidity level of 92%. And, interestingly, it cannot be sold in grated form. It is 45% fat, and if the affinage occurs properly, a little bubble, or "eye" appears in the pâte. It is made from raw milk. It was good and we would give it a 3.0.

12. St. Moret

Not sure if this counts as a cheese, but it is yummy and is the closest thing you will find to cream cheese in France. One word of warning for visitors to France. Do not ever, ever, ever, ever, ever order what the French call a cheesecake. If you are a great lover of American cheesecakes, then the French version will leave you so disappointed that you might need to call a suicide line. You will know what Charlie Brown feels like every Halloween when he gets a lump of coal in his candy bag. It is wretched. The French really missed the boat on this one. Anyway, this was a good spread cheese, and we enjoyed it on a Ritz cracker (which we are ever thankful to the Italians for supplying) as an appetizer. I have hope yet that it might make a good cheesecake. We give it a good, solid 3.1.

13. Etoki

We really liked this cheese. We had it with a glass of champagne as an appetizer at a friends house.  It is made from cow or ewe's milk. It has a soft pâte, but is not runny like some of our other favorites. The sheep's milk version is only available from winter to early summer. The rest of the year cow's milk is used. We give this a 3.5.

15.Boursault

Named after it's creator Henri Boursault, this cheese is made from cow's milk and is a soft double-créme cheese. The flavor was mild, but very tasty. It went well with the champagne we were having as an aperitif. It has an affinage of two months, and a 70% fat content. It comes from the Ile-de-France region. The rind on this cheese was soft enough that it could be eaten, too. We would give this a 3.6.

16. Pavé d'Affinois

Also had this cheese with a glass of champagne, and it, too, was yummy. It has a 45% fat content and is made from cows milk. The pâte was soft and reminded us of a nice brie. We give it a 3.5.

17. Picodon

This is a fermier cheese I bought in the only fromageire in Cannes. It is made with goats milk and comes from the Rhône region of France. The cheese gets it's flavor from the goats grazing on mountain grass and shrubs with strong aromas and flavors. It has an affinage of 12 days to the more usual 4 weeks. It is 45% fat. When at room temperature, the cheese is perfectly gooey. It has a dry flavor that was simply delicious. You could kind of taste the grasses in the cheese. It was very popular at our aperitif. Just inside the rind was the gooiest part, with the center of the soft pâte being more solid. We would give it a 3.9.

18.Le Pérail du Fédou

An artisanal cheese made from sheep's milk, these cheese was very much like a brie. It was nice and gooey at room temperature. It comes from the Pyrénées region of France and affinage takes 1 week. The flavor is very creamy and smooth, and has a 50% fat content. It is mostly available winter through summer. It was a hit at the aperitif as well. We give it a 3.8.

19. Taupinière

Another fermier cheese, this time from the Angoumois region of France, which is on the Atlantic coast, near the region of Bordeaux. It is made from raw goats milk and has a fat content of 45%. It has a soft pâte inside a rind of natural mold on charcoal powder. You did have to wash the powder of your hands when finished cutting this cheese (there has to be a better term). During the two week affinage the cheese absorbs mold in the affinage cellar, which gives it it's flavor. It had a dry taste and was a little tart. You needed something to drink after eating it. But it did have a lot character and interesting flavor that you went back for more. A 3.8.

19. La Bouille

Yum ! A Double-Crème cheese thought I bought at our local, well, in Cannes, fromageire. It is an artisanal cheese produced in Normandy, which is famous for its creams. It is made from cows milk and has an affinage of two months. It has a 60% fat content, with a white, moldy rind that is soft and edible. The pâte was perfect, just the right gooeyness. We had the cheese with a vin blanc, a nice 1999 Terres Dorées Chardonnay. The cheese is also rumored to go well with my favorite Medoc. We enjoyed this cheese greatly, a solid 3.9.

20. Pesto Chévre

The was the house specialty of my fromager in Cannes. It is a layered cheese with alternating layers of chévre and pesto-chévre. It was yummy, and I even put some on my tune melt. Since it is goat cheese it had that distinctive goat cheese flavor, and the pâte was soft and chewy. An enjoyable specialty, a solid 3.5.

21. Le Président Brie

Given that brie is the most famous French cheese of them all ("La Riene du Fromage" - The Queen of Cheese") I'm surprised that it took us until cheese number 21 to get to a brie. Back in the medieval days, brie was one of the tributes the French had to pay to their king, which accounts for its Parisian heritage. Brie's come from the very Northern part of France, near Paris. They are made of cow's milk. French brie is different than what is imported into the US. In France it is unstabilized and the pâte turns a slight brownish color. It can take up to a year to reach this point. A brie is at it's most flavorful at this point. The brie that is exported to the US is stabilized and never matures. When the pâte of a brie is still pure-white it has not matured properly. This isn't by some nefarious design on the part of the French. Stabilized cheese has a longer shelf life and is more suitable for the long distances involved with exporting cheese into the US. This particular brie had a yellowish pâte, which meant it had been aged some, but was not fully mature. It had a 60% fat content. It was till good, but was a bit tangy and tasted very much of milk. We enjoyed it, but it wasn't in the same league as some of the fine cheese above. We give it a 3.

22. Le Charolais

I bought this goat cheese from a fromager at our local Saturday morning town market, in Le Cannet, just down the road from us. It was an artisanal cheese and comes from the Charolais region of Bourgogne. It is typically made from raw milk, though in this case it was pasteurized. It has 45% fat and affinage is 2-6 weeks. It had the typical smell, taste, and texture of a goat cheese. It even started to smell after a few days in the fridge. But it was a testy cheese that went well on a baguette or with the white wines we drank with it. We would give it a 3.2.

23. Roquefort, Société

Good old Roquefort. Americans know it best as a salad dressing, but it is in the bleu and gorgonzola cheese family. This was an industriel cheese, and we ate it both au naturel with a baguette, as a sauce over pasta, and with spinach in a stuffing for some chicken. So it is a versatile cheese.  A Roquefort has a minimum of 52% fat and has a soft, moist, white and blue pâte that crumbles when you apply slight pressure, though it should be cut with a pre-warmed knife. Roquefort is one of the most famous cheeses in the world. It dates back to a guy no one has ever heard of, Pliny, of ancient Rome. He mentions the cheese in a book he wrote about AD 79. In 1411 Charles VI granted the people of Roquefort a monopoly of ripening their cheese in the caves around the town that gives the cheese its name. They had been doing it this way for hundreds of years. In 1925 they were given the very first AOC rating in France.

Though the cheese can be made in many, many places in the South of France, including where we live, it could not be called a true Roquefort unless it had been ripened in the natural caves of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon. Almost 60% of Roquefort cheese is made by one company, the Société des Caves et des Producteurs Réunis, which is who made this cheese. Some 3.3 million wheels are made a year. The affinage occurs in the aforementioned caves. It lasts at least 3 months, usually 4, but can be up to 9 months. In a young cheese, the mold is pale and green, turning bluer as it ages. If it is left too long the mold becomes dominant. This is how you can tell a good Roquefort. 

The cheese is made from lambs milk, and the lamb must be at least 20 days old before milking. Renneting must begin within 48 hours of the last milking. The ewes are either Lacaune, Manechs, Basco-Béarnaise, or one Corsican breed. The powders used to create the mold, Penicillium roqueforti, must be prepared in France from the traditional sources in the micro-climate of the natural caves in the area of the commune. This mold is found only in the caves of Roquefort.  It lives in the soil and ferments the cheeses. The producers must keep official records and make them available for inspection. The records indicate quantities of milk delivered, weight, and number of cheeses made each day. 

The birthplace of Roquefort is in the chalky mountains of Combalou. The village hangs on a cliff, with two thirds of it built into the cliffs. The mountain has partially collapsed three times over the millennia, the third time opened a series of caves in all the debris. The vertical faults and fissures in the cave provide a natural ventilation known as fleurines, some up to 328 feet high that connect the caves with the outside world. The caves provide an immense storage area with a constant temperature of 48 degrees F and  a constant humidity of 95%. In the winter, when it is cold, warm air is expelled from the fleurines. The more cheese being ripened, the warmer the expelled air. In summer, when it is warmer outside the caves than in. Hot air is cooled in the fleurines and begins to fall into the caves. When this happens, the air humidifies and the draft from the caves sucks it in. This provides a sophisticated form of ventilation. The process is also self-seeding due to the miniscule cheese particles attached to the walls of the caves. These serve as a culture pool for the yeast and penicillium roqueforti. When the wind blows through the fleurines, the air becomes filled with their spores and the mold grows.

Eight days after production, the cheese wheels are taken to the caves where they are pierced with needles. This allows the carbon dioxide formed by the fermentation to escape. The spore-laden air fills the void, laying the grounds for the mold to grow. The mold multiplies until it spread pretty evenly throughout. The cheese is then wrapped in aluminum foil to preserve it.

The French don't mess around with their Bleu cheeses. Take a big bite of this baby and someone will have to pick you up off the floor. At least for an American, Roquefort is to be eaten in small bites ! Well, at least for this American. It melts in your mouth leaving a very strong, amazing, yet extremely tasty flavor. It is very rich, with a salty taste, and goes well with strong flavored meats or pastas, or with a sweet wine.

We loved it. Gave it a 4.1.

24. Le Coutances

This was a very yummy soft cheese, perfectly gooey. It comes from Normandy, which is famous for it's creams and butter, and so it would be known for excellent cheeses as well. With a 60% fat content, it was very creamy with a strong, milky-buttery after taste. Our favorite so far. We give it a 4.3.

25. Le Président Camembert

Again, surprising that it took us 25 cheese to get to Camembert, one of the most famous of French cheeses. Camembert is a small town in Normandy, in the north of France, which gets a lot of rain. So there is alot of lush grass for the cows to munch on. The cows are milked twice a day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon. To be AOC the milk cannot be heated above 98.6 degrees F. The curd must be cut vertically, and the curd must be poured into its mold with a ladle the same diameter as the mold, and there must be a minimum of 4 rounds of ladling. Camembert should always come in a wooden box. It is 45% fat and comes from raw cows milk. Our wheel of Camembert was good, but not up to the Le Coutances. It did not have as much flavor or much aftertaste. It was just kind of there. It is said that it is hard to find a good Camembert. Perhaps that was our problem. We give this one a 3.2 for just being gooey.

25. Pié d'Angloys

I think we have a winner. So far, the best cheese we've tasted. The 200g wheel went in about 3 days, just the two of us. Naturally, it is gooey, a double-crème. But the taste is superb. Nice and buttery. A very soft rind that is edible, if you must. The pâte is a creamy white, with a harder center than the outer edges. Yum, I'm having some now as I type. It is from the Bordeaux area, ours came from a small town called Flogny-la-Chapelle. We give this a 4.5. Definitely, if you see it at your local store give it a try.