Pavé d'Affinois

The cheese

Born in the 1980s at the Guilloteau dairy in Pélussin, on the foothills of the Pilat, Pavé d'Affinois — along with its cousin brand Fromager d'Affinois — embodies a modern, industrial take on soft-paste cheese. The key technology: milk ultrafiltration, which concentrates proteins by removing water, lactose, and soluble minerals, yielding a remarkably creamy, homogeneous texture. The two-kilo hexagonal slab, divided into six individual portions wrapped in printed paper, seduces with its suppleness and white bloomy rind, gentler and more consensual than traditional camemberts. The range extends to thirty products — cow, goat, sheep — made in the Loire and Ain departments. Without AOP, it makes no terroir claim, but offers an effective compromise: melting in the mouth, mild in character, perfect for apéritifs or for those just beginning to explore the world of bloomy-rind cheeses.