The catalogue
18 cheeses
Beaufort
Savoie / Beaufortain, France
Alpine summer milk, pressed in a beech hoop that gives it its waist.
Bleu d’Auvergne
Auvergne, France
The everyday French blue — buttery, spicy, and dependable.
Brie de Meaux
Seine-et-Marne, France
The raw-milk original, sold in wheels the width of a bicycle wheel.
Camembert de Normandie
Normandy, France
Smaller, saltier and more brazen than brie, in its famous poplar box.
Comté
Franche-Comté / Jura, France
France’s most-produced AOP cheese, and no two wheels taste alike.
Crottin de Chavignol
Loire / Sancerre, France
A goat’s-milk button from Sancerre that gets fiercer as it shrinks.
Fourme d’Ambert
Auvergne / Puy-de-Dôme, France
The gentlest of the great French blues, in a tall narrow cylinder.
Mimolette
Lille / Flanders, France
A bright orange sphere with a pitted rind, courtesy of live mites.
Morbier
Franche-Comté, France
The one with the black line through the middle.
Munster-Géromé
Alsace / Vosges, France
The Vosges monks’ cheese: enormous nose, sweet-tempered paste.
Ossau-Iraty
Basque Country / Béarn, France
Basque shepherd’s cheese: sheep’s milk, sweet, and endlessly easy to eat.
Pont-l’Évêque
Normandy, France
A square Norman washed rind that has been made since the 1100s.
Reblochon de Savoie
Haute-Savoie, France
Born of tax evasion in the Alps, now the soul of tartiflette.
Roquefort
Aveyron, France
Sheep’s milk, natural caves, and a salt level that stops the conversation.
Saint-Nectaire
Auvergne, France
Volcanic pasture, rye-straw cellars, and a rind that smells of mushrooms.
Tomme de Savoie
Savoie, France
A low-fat farmhouse leftover that turned out to be delicious.
Valençay
Berry / Loire, France
A truncated ash-covered pyramid, allegedly flattened by Napoleon.
Époisses de Bourgogne
Burgundy, France
Washed in grape brandy until the rind glows orange and the room objects.