Rating: 
Summary: For reference more than "reading"
Review: Living in France, I am always making the acquaintance of cheeses I had never before known existed. I always scurry to find this book, and look up the tasty morcel I've just consumed. It's great for learning the basics about various cheeses -- and, as noted by other reviewers -- the photos are divine, but it's not the sort of book one takes into the bath to pore over for hours at a time. Put it on your shelf next to your dictionary and thesaurus; it's that useful!
Rating: 
Summary: You'll be a French cheese expert
Review: My husband and I are Americans living in the south of France for one year. Don't go to live in France without taking this book. This is a beautiful book. It is an encyclopedia of French cheeses. The pictures and the details are superb. It is informative, entertaining and full of cheese facts that even the French people don't know about. You will be able to tell your French friends and the Fromagere more about their cheeses than they want to know. We have left them stunned with our knowledge of cheeses. They just eat the cheeses. They don't read about them.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent, comprehensive guide to 350 French cheeses
Review: The authors have produced a wonderfully complete guide to over 350 French cheeses, giving every little detail about each cheese. In addition to the cheese entries, it also includes inserts which cover cheese making and other items of interest related to the individual entrie.Some readers may not like the fact that it's not alphabetical (it arranges alphabetical within region), but once you get used to the format, it's a joy. A perfect choice for the serious cheese lover.
Rating:
Summary: Cheese whiz...
Review: When I was a child and the milk soured, my ever-frugal mother would set it aside in a bowl and allow it to continue it's transformation into something wild and strange. When the curds and the whey separated, she would pour the contents into a cheese cloth stretched across a strainer and then gather and lift the cloth and squeeze the exess fluid from the curds. We ate the cheese as is...a form of "cottage" cheese I suppose. I was reminded of this when I read FRENCH CHEESES from Eyewitness Handbooks which contains a short history of cheese-making in the front section of the book. I like this book, and since I am not a cheese expert, I cannot say whether it will make one an expert or not, but it has enlightened me a bit as I continue to experiment with the various kinds of cheeses available in the gourmet section of the grocery stores and the delicatesson in our neighborhood. I have eaten various cheeses in Paris and other parts of Europe, and thought them better than anything I can buy in the States though I have eaten "fancy" cheeses in some upscale restaurants. I realize the French and others use unpasturized or raw milk in many of their cheeses and the U.S. frowns on the use of untreated milk so perhaps this is a factor. CHEESES identifies cooked versus raw versions. However, many of the cheeses in this book are not found in U.S. stores because a limited supply exists and/or the product is consumed or sold locally. Generally these are artisanal cheeses (made by hand). CHEESES includes a map showing the farm areas of France and each cheese entry pinpoints the geographic location of the product. You can match the map with the cheese of interest to you and perhaps search for it on your next excursion to the French countryside. In the meantime, the list of producers in the appendix may prove helpful.
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