The savvy Francophile’s guide to fromage: French cheese resources

It takes work to become the ultimate French cheese connoisseur, but luckily, we’ve already done most of it for you…

We can just about tell a Brie from a Camembert, and there are plenty of restaurants specialising in cheese, plus excellent (if slightly pungent) cheese shops to help us out.

What we really want, however, is to be the ultimate French cheese connoisseur: French cheese personifies France, and it only takes a sniff of Roquefort for us to feel as if we were there.

Luckily, we have a list of indispensable resources to learn from. These will give you all the tools you need to become cheese-savvy: perfect for showing off at your next French soirée, and curing your longing for France.

We’ve collected everything we know on French cheese, and organised it into guides. Whether you want to know more about how French cheese is made, or whether you’re looking for specific information on soft cheese, hard cheese or blue cheese, we’ve got the information that you need…

Encompassing tasting notes with specific regional information, you can find all you need to know on our favourite cheeses. However, to complement these guides, we’ve listed our favourite cheese websites below.

For a comprehensive list of French cheese, including their origin and tasting notes, Cheese France is an indispensable resource. It’s perfect for looking up a French cheese you haven’t heard of, so you can make sure that you have the know-how.

It’s a great feeling to know the history and origins of a cheese that you’re tasting, and this website will offer you exactly that.

We love About.com for their comprehensive articles on the French language, but they also have a fair amount of information on France’s many cheeses. This includes a huge section on recipes: we particularly love this feature on 10 things to do with French cheese!

About.com has great tasting notes as well, plus if you’re looking for the right wine to complement your French cheese, this is the resource for you.

This website is clearly the product of someone truly passionate about cheese, and in reading it, it is difficult not to share that passion. With a pronunciation guide as well as pictures for each cheese, The Cheeses of Europe is great to consult before you head to the fromagerie.

It is also great for choosing cheese, as it breaks them down into categories based on their style, flavour and milk type, also recommending recipes for each cheese.

We turn to David Lebovitz for everything foodie in Paris – from where to find the best vegetarian food, to budget eats – and cheese is no exception…

You’ll find plenty of interesting content on cheese on his blog – just reading it makes us crave France, but we’re sure a sliver of French cheese will satiate those familiar French cravings…

David Lebovitz’s exhaustive list of where to buy, taste and sample French cheese in Paris, is another indispensable resource: it should be printed out by anyone heading to the French capital. That, and this almost equally exhaustive list created by Paris by Mouth.

Buy as much cheese as you can fit in your suitcase, and then make an excellent cheeseboard when you get home…

Do you have any essential resources that can help us to become a French cheese connoisseur? Add any that can help in the comment box below!