The 10 best French cheeses
Show all 101. Roi de Trefle Camembert
£1.35 (250g pack), aldi.co.uk
An agreeable camembert at an even more agreeable price. This Aldi offering isn't going to win prizes for complexity – but at that price, it's still a win for quality on the cheap.
2. Ossau Iraty
£3.40 per 100g, selfridges.com
Medium-soft and nutty – if you like comté, you'll love ossau iraty. Interestingly, the white, mouldy rind is edible; experts say it only serves to enhance the cheese's flavour.
3. Chevrotin
£3.99 per 100g, monscheese.co.uk
With its hint of sourness, this distinctive unpasturised goat's cheese is a breakfast dish in the Alps, where it's been made since the 17th century.
4. Chaource
£2.99 (250g pack), sainsburys.co.uk
We can't recommend chaource enough. Stronger than St Felicien, but with a similarly melting texture and crumbly, semi-firm centre.
5. St Felicien Mons
£7.59, wholefoodsmarket.com
Soft and oozing, this cheese offers a mellow, buttery flavour. Named after the small Alpine town where it was first produced, this is a cheeseboard classic. Pair with a Rhône valley white or red.
6. Napoleon - Sud Ouest
£31.50/kg, harveynichols.com
Named not after the Gallic leader, but after the mountain that faced the farm of its origin. Similar to a Comté, with a distinctive nutty tang that will stand up nicely to a bottle of full-bodied red.
7. Crottin De Chavignol
£3.10 (60g), finecheese.co.uk
A gently nutty goat's cheese that acquires a blue exterior as it ages, crottin de chavignol works alone, but don't let that stop you adding it to a salad for a show-stopping starter.
8. Berthaut Epoisses De Bourgogne
£6.22 (250g pack), waitrose.com
This unpasteurised cows-milk cheese from the Côte-d'Or is pungent but delicious and was reportedly Napoleon's favourite.
9. Brie De Meaux
£25/kg, paxtonand whitfield.co.uk
The king amongst French cheeses (it was crowned "Roi des Fromages", at the Congress of Vienna), the best brie is pungent and runny.
10. Chevre Premier De Moulis
£2.20 per 100g, teddington cheese.co.uk
From the Pyrenees, this unusual hard goat's cheese is gently nutty, with pock-marks in its creamy flesh.
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