I took him at his word and made our first stop in Normandy at Fromagerie E. Graindorge, a cheesemaking factory and tourist attraction in the rural Pays d’Auge region. It was an easy hourlong drive from the city of Caen (after a two-hour train ride to avoid Parisian traffic) that took us through a patchwork of apple orchards and rural farms. Founded in 1910 as a family-owned operation, it was sold in 2016 to the multinational dairy corporation Lactalis. Today, the factory continues to produce the four A.O.C. cheeses, along with some non-A. O. C. and pasteurized varieties.

The commercial complex is surrounded by startlingly green farmland just outside the small village of Livarot. It welcomes visitors with an educational center and a self-directed tour through the factory that culminates with a tasting. The tour begins with a short video about the fromagerie’s history (in French, with English subtitles) and continues through a glass passageway above the fluorescent production facilities. Peering through large windows, we spied workers in white aprons and hairnets in a vast milk-processing hall, various aging rooms and a testing lab. Farther along, square boxes of Pont-l’Évêque flew through a labyrinthine labeling machine. In another room, two workers deftly wrapped and hand-tied reeds around wheels of pungent Livarot, the traditional method to help the soft, washed-rind cheese retain its shape.

Exiting through the gift shop, we passed a large refrigerated case filled with Graindorge cheeses, four of which were cut into bite-size pieces for sampling. The cheeses varied in pungency but it was impossible to decipher the nuances; chilling cheese inhibits flavor. So I bought two wheels to sample later: an earthy raw-milk Camembert de Normandie and a slightly sweet, drier Camembert au Calvados made with local apple brandy.

The experience was altogether different the next day when we pulled up outside Fromagerie Durand, the only artisan producer of Camembert in the village — a handful of timber-frame houses clustered on a grassy hillside like a herd of grazing cattle — for which the cheese is named. Instead of a slick cheesemaking factory, this was a get-your-boots-dirty farm; the cheeses made here are not only A.O.C., but also “fermier,” which means that all the milk comes from the farm’s own cows. The use of milk from a single herd rather than several results in cheeses with terroir and subtle differences that change with the seasons.