Courtney Love lost a lot of weight. Cheese, she said, cheese was the problem. Her solution? "Don't melt it on shit." A point well taken, whether slimming or not. Generally speaking, the French enjoy cheese as a course in its own right, to round out a delicious meal.

The French are good at cheese. As is typical of the French food aesthetic, and perhaps of aesthetes of all ilk, the superior must be radically provincial. French cheeses are more often than not named for the towns in which they are made. The process can't be removed from the place. The particular cows, goats, or sheep; the fields they graze; the length of the day; the dankness of the cellars; these are all ingredients in great cheeses. And like wine, cheeses change markedly as they age.

Because cheeses are the provenance of local farms, there are literally thousands to choose from. Fortunately or not, only a fraction of these make it overseas. The soft ripening cheeses and triple-crèmes are the best known. Many regions make triple-crèmes, which top the richness scale, at a whopping 75% butterfat. They are generally sweet and mild: Brillat-Savarin and Boursin are two common varieties.

Bries represent the family of soft ripening cheeses that contain 50% to 60% butterfat. Americans love Brie, which is actually the name of a group of cheeses made in the Brie region that straddles the border between Ile-de-France and Champagne. It has a distinguished lineage, going back to the fifteenth century. Inferior, American Brie usually has a white rind, but when properly ripe, with all the micro-organisms alive and well, the rind of a French brie will have a reddish color. Some Bries are saltier, others creamier, some have rind on all sides, others just on the top and bottom.

Normandy is famous for her dairy products and makes many of France's best cheeses. Camembert, a soft cheese like Brie, is one of the most famous. Perfected in 1790 by Madame Harel, a farmer's wife, the huge popularity of this cheese in France and abroad has led many to imitate it. The upshot is a glut of substandard Camembert. When served, Camembert should have an orangy-reddish rind indicating ripeness. There are very distinctive and tasty goat's milk Camemberts.

The mountainous southeast of France also produces great cheese that is generally heartier and less temperamental than the soft cheeses of the North. Comté, a close relative of the Swiss Gruyère, made just over the mountains, is firmer than Morbier, melts nicely (pace Courtney) and, despite our warnings above, is used in cooking. It makes nice tarts and even fondue. The Cantal mountains of Auvergne in the south-central plateau nurture cows that make good milk that in turn becomes a number of exceptionally fine cheeses. One is named for its source: Cantal is a hard cheese by French standards (the very hard cheeses are the genius of the Italians and Brits, with their Asiagos and cheddars). Bleu d'Auvergne, Gaperon, and Forme d'Ambert -- as well as goat's milk Cabecou and sheep's milk Roquefort -- are a few of the other well-known cheeses produced in this region.