{"id":6187,"date":"2026-05-07T03:01:30","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T03:01:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/why-are-there-so-many-cheeses-in-france\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T03:01:30","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T03:01:30","slug":"why-are-there-so-many-cheeses-in-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/why-are-there-so-many-cheeses-in-france\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Are There So Many Cheeses in France?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Some of France\u2019s many cheese offerings. Photo credit Eric Prouzet<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

France produces more distinct cheeses than any other country \u2014 though exactly how many depends on who you ask. The late French President Charles de Gaulle famously joked about the difficulty of governing a country with 246 cheeses, though even that number is debated. Today, estimates range from a few hundred to as many as 5,000, depending on how cheeses are differentiated.<\/p>\n

Whatever the number, it is generally agreed that the French portfolio outnumbers those of other famous cheese nations, with Italy a distant second.<\/p>\n

To avoid a myopic perspective, it\u2019s worth noting that many in the United States, including experts, are more familiar with certain European cheese traditions than others. As one interview subject suggested, there may be just as many cheeses across the Mediterranean that are less widely known but equally important to global cheese culture.<\/p>\n

So why does France have so many different cheeses? There are a number of reasons.<\/p>\n

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Historical Reasons<\/h2>\n
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Cheese consultant and author Emma Young<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

France\u2019s multitude of cheeses can partly be attributed to history, says Emma Young, a London-based cheese consultant<\/a> and author of The Cheese Wheel: How to Choose and Pair Cheese Like an Expert<\/em><\/a>. Prior to the French Revolution, France did not exist as a unified nation. \u201cIt was essentially a country made up of many different territories and peoples,\u201d she explains.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore the Revolution there was little exchange between the different regions, which allowed for a large variety of cheeses being made according to local savoir-faire and techniques,\u201d says Young. As those distinct regions became a unified France during the late 1700s, each region proudly held to cheese traditions developed over centuries.<\/p>\n

While that centuries-long fragmentation faded after the Revolution and the dawn of the industrial era, cheesemakers weren\u2019t immediately inclined to consolidate styles and traditions, experts say. With the advent of rail travel about 75 years later, artisans saw an opportunity to develop new markets across France and beyond. By the early 1900s, consumers from the English Channel to the Mediterranean could find Comt\u00e9<\/a> at local markets alongside Loire Valley goat cheeses and northerly Camembert.<\/p>\n

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Topographical and Geographical Reasons<\/h2>\n
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Jennifer Greco leading a cheese tasting. Photo credit Anna Mindess<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

France\u2019s diverse geography and topography also contributed to its multitude of cheeses, says Jennifer Greco<\/a>, a Paris-based expat and Cheese Professor<\/em> contributor <\/a>who has lived in the country for two decades.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrance is so varied, with mountains and plains and little valleys,\u201d she says, adding that \u201cwhere hay and wheat cannot be grown, sheep and goats thrive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Greco, a former pastry chef, set out to taste every French cheese <\/a>after moving to France. She has reconsidered that lofty goal, but is proud to have tasted nearly 550. She now leads private cheese tastings through Paris by Mouth<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Looking back on early history, Greco notes that cheese served as a staple food. \u201cIt\u2019s a matter of people needing food, and animals giving them a way to sustain life.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Journalist Emily Monaco. Photo credit Charlotte Bailey<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Emily Monaco,<\/a> a Paris-based journalist and co-host of the Fishwives of Paris podcast<\/a>, also points to the range of environs and climates as a significant factor in France\u2019s vast cheese portfolio.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe diversity of France’s cheesescape is, in my mind, due mainly to its varied terrain,\u201d she says. \u201cIn France, you’ve got everything from mountains to plains, pasture to scrub, and each of these terroirs imposes specific challenges on the people who live there.\u201d<\/p>\n

She cites the rugged topography of Provence as proof: It\u2019s inhospitable to cows but perfect for goats and sheep, which is why small goat cheeses and pressed sheep\u2019s milk tommes are common in the area.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn each region, cheesemakers seek to make the most of what they have,\u201d she says. \u201cMountain cheeses like Comt\u00e9, Salers<\/a>, and Ossau-Iraty,<\/a> for example, are designed to last.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Terroir<\/h2>\n
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More French cheeses. Photo credit Eric Prouzet<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Like wine, cheese has terroir \u2014 the French concept that products are rooted in their regions and express a sense of place. Grapes are influenced by soil types, temperature, and even the angle of the sun, and these conditions shape the wine in the glass. Cheeses are similarly influenced by factors such as animal breed, elevation, and local vegetation, Greco says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you have a farm in the Pyrenees, and you have Basco-B\u00e9arnaise sheep, you will develop a cheese with certain characteristics,\u201d she adds. \u201cBut if you go to a different elevation and a different breed, you might make a cheese in the same style and just call it a tomme. You can say they are the same style, but not the exact same cheese.\u201d<\/p>\n

Monaco notes that while terroir is a nearly universally accepted concept today, farmers of centuries gone likely never conceived of it while creating unique cheese styles \u2014 yet they were part of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are stories linking the invention of Camembert in the late 18th century to the arrival of techniques from Brie, near Paris,\u201d she says. \u201cThe local milk from Normande cows, local microflora, and local climate impacted the way the cheese was made, creating a wholly new palette of flavors.\u201d<\/p>\n

That complex set of flavors is now legally defined by the PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) for Camembert de Normandie<\/a>, one of 46 French cheeses with such a designation.<\/p>\n

Monaco speculates that something in the French psyche contributes to the vast array of cheese definitions.<\/p>\n

\u201cPerhaps the diversity of French cheese comes, at least in part, from our latent desire to categorize,\u201d she says. \u201cThis is a country that loves a dictionary or an encyclopedia.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Beyond Traditions<\/h2>\n
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Despite France\u2019s strong cheese traditions, innovation does exist, but it tends to be subtle rather than radical.<\/p>\n

The United Kingdom has its own diverse cheese traditions, albeit with a much smaller number of recognized styles;\u00a0 there, a handful of makers are producing cheeses inspired by French or Italian styles. In France, however, cheesemakers have been slower to break with tradition.<\/p>\n

While there\u2019s no evidence that English-style clothbound cheeses are on the horizon in Normandy, Monaco observes that there are some new developments, such as cheeses coated in flowers.<\/p>\n

Will French consumers accept new styles when they already have thousands to choose from? Perhaps.<\/p>\n

\u201cInnovation doesn\u2019t need to be complicated,\u201d Monaco says. \u201cThe French love Shropshire Blue because it is very different from their own blue cheeses \u2014 and because it is orange.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some of France\u2019s many cheese offerings. Photo credit Eric Prouzet France produces more distinct cheeses than any other country \u2014 though exactly how many depends on who you ask. The late French President Charles de Gaulle famously joked about the difficulty of governing a country with 246 cheeses, though even that number is debated. Today, … Okumaya devam et “Why Are There So Many Cheeses in France?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1271,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[395],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-milk-and-diary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1271"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6187\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}