Where to find the best butter in France—a guide for foodie travelers

On a cold winter day in Normandy, not far from the D-Day landing beaches where Allied soldiers liberated France in World War II, the air is redolent with cream in the Isigny Sainte-Mère butter factory. Master butter maker Norbert Constant peers into the stainless-steel churn. “It’s a wave of butter!” he says, smearing a spatula with the rich product (82 percent butterfat). And then we taste solidified sunshine. 

Butter is more than a kitchen staple, or bread’s inseparable sidekick. Central to culinary tradition, this golden ingredient is a thread in the narrative of human civilization, dating to the earliest domestication of animals 10,000 years ago. Language itself is slathered in butter idioms. “To butter someone up” connotes flattery in English, while the bounty of French expressions connects butter to money, commerce, and prosperity.

Butter factors into my own family’s folklore. My mother likes to tell the story of when she found me as a toddler, sitting on the kitchen floor, eating a stick of butter I had somehow finagled from the fridge. Later I married into a French family whose motto is “le beurre, c’est la vie” (butter is life). In fact, France is the planet’s biggest annual butter consumer (nearly 18 pounds per person), and the country is revered for its butter-making prowess. In A Little Tour in France, Henry James wrote, “it was the poetry of butter, and I ate a pound or two of it.” Julia Child, the American champion of French cuisine, famously quipped, “with enough butter, anything is good.”

Today’s food-loving travelers are just as smitten. In an age of butter boards popularized on social media, Paris visitors jostle elbows in the butter aisle at La Grande Épicerie gourmet grocery and vacuum seal their purchases for the journey home. Where can you find the best beurre in France? I set out on a quest across three regions to find the holy grail.

Normandy

France’s biggest butter producer owes this heritage to the Vikings, who brought the preserved product to Normandy during their 9th-century invasions. By the 17th century, Normandy’s gloried butter reputation was firmly established. Particularly reputed were rivals Gournay-en-Bray and Isigny, whose butter (salted for preservation) was shipped in straw-covered blocks to Paris. With its port, prized Isigny butter could be exported as far as Brazil and the American colonies. (These days, Isigny builds on this centuries-old export expertise; a local product representing only 1 percent of French butter production is found in 100 countries.) 

“Butter is the soul of Norman cuisine … embodying a whole way of life,” says chef Matthieu Pouleur of La Ferme Saint Siméon Hotel in Honfleur. At Les Impressionistes restaurant, a tableside ceremony exalts the Maison Borniaumbuc farmhouse butter—the server scoops it from a wooden vessel onto your plate.

“Considered both a product of prestige and a powerful symbol of the area’s gastronomic identity, butter stands out for its remarkable versatility … from cooking meats to sauces,” says Normandy-born chef Kevin Legoy of the Maison Douce Époque hotel outside Deauville.

Isigny is Normandy’s only butter with the prestigious AOP label, indicating a protected designation of origin. “In the old days, people spoke of a ‘cru’ of butter,” explains Constant, linking the product, like wine, to the terroir. The strict AOP production rules showcase this unique geography and historic savoir-faire: the farms are situated within a 22-mile radius in the river-bathed Parc Naturel des Marais du Cotentin et du Bessin. The cows graze outside on mineral-packed grass for at least seven months annually; the butter's carotene-tinged “buttercup” hue is vivid in the spring when the cows return to pasture. What’s more, the herd must have 30 percent of the Normande breed, which produce less milk, but are rich in fat.

On Mathilde and Jean-Sébastien Marion’s farm, the meadows unfurl in a green tapestry edged by hedge rows. These living fences create shade and a wind buffer for cattle, while harboring wildlife. Isigny Sainte-Mère, the only French cooperative that’s certified B Corp, finances the replanting of hedge rows, and it also pays its dairy farmers the most for milk in France. A pair of swans glides along the river, and the loud clacking of storks echoes in the stillness. It’s here where you see how Isigny butter is deeply linked to the land and its history. 

What to see and do in Isigny-sur-Mer

The visitor center at the Caramels d’Isigny factory offers insights into dairy production plus a window onto the Willy Wonka world where luscious caramels are crafted with Isigny butter and cream. Pick up gourmet delights at the Halles d’Isigny store. Though the Isigny Sainte-Mère creamery is not open to visitors, its butter-laden boutique is a place of ice-cream pilgrimage. Walt Disney’s ancestors originated here (“d’Isigny” morphed into “Disney”)— the Walt d’Isigny Museum Space displays 600 Mickey Mouse-themed items. With a charming, colorful port, the town is well-located to explore the region’s World War II sites. Nearby Bayeux, largely untouched by the war bombing, offers lovely lodgings such as the Villa Lara in the medieval city center.

Brittany

One bite of the kouign-amann, the butter-drenched Breton pastry, and you can understand butter’s leading role in Brittany’s cuisine. (The iconic pastry actually means “butter cake” in Breton.) Arguably the most famous butter produced in this maritime, agricultural region is Maison Bordier, an artisanal enterprise using organic milk from farms in Brittany, Normandy, and Pays-de-la-Loire. The son and grandson of butter makers, Jean-Yves Bordier took over a St-Malo creamery in 1985, where he aspired to produce churned butter using 19th-century “kneading” methods. (The wooden device known as a “malaxeur” had almost disappeared from use.) 

“No one else in France makes butter like this,” says Julie Sugliani, a Maison Bordier manager. Its rise to stardom began in 1997 when Éric Briffard, then chef at the Hotel Plaza Athénée, discovered it while on vacation. He ordered it for his Michelin-starred restaurant, soon followed by chefs from all over the world, including Daniel Boulud in New York. The butter is crafted into custom shapes—bells, cones, squares—for restaurant tables. “Beau et bon, the butter is not just an accompaniment, it’s a centerpiece,” explains Sugliani.

(Brittany: exploring the French cuisine that brings together land and sea)

Bordier is also famous for its flavored butters. This innovation happened by accident over lunch with friends in 1986, when Jean-Yves Bordier experimented with seaweed while the fish cooked. The aromatic result was a game changer.  Today, Bordier butter is produced outside Rennes, but it retains its St-Malo link with the Maison du Beurre Bordier boutique and the Bistro Autour de Beurre, featuring signature butter boards with eight flavored butters, from buckwheat to Espelette pepper.

What to see and do in St Malo

The setting for All the Light We Cannot See, the walled city of St Malo was painstakingly restored after World War II. Walk the ramparts and get awe-struck by one of the world’s highest tidal ranges. The home port for navigators like Jacques Cartier, the Cité Corsaire once grew rich on privateering, maritime trade, and the cod fishery—learn about the Newfoundlanders who departed for treacherous, months-long voyages at the Musée des Terre-Neuvas. Stay at the Otonali Hotel, run by the Breton native behind the Breizh Café crepe empire, or La Maison des Armateurs inside the medieval city walls.

(In this French seaside town, discover the places in ‘All the Light We Cannot See’)

Nouvelle Aquitaine

Produced in five departments in western France, Charentes-Poitou butter is one of only three AOP butters, alongside Isigny and Bresse. Rigorous AOP rules ensure the product’s authenticity: Cows eat GMO-free feed, and collected milk is matured with natural cultures for a minimum of 16 hours.

“Butter is a symbol of French pâtisserie and a raw material that’s absolutely essential,” explains Nina Métayer, the award-winning pastry chef from La Rochelle who’s an AOP ambassador. “My selection criteria are based on regularity, precision, and tradition. I choose this butter for its year-round consistency … The expression of my region’s terroir, it’s a local product of which I’m proud.” 

It’s here in the Deux-Sèvres, my French family’s ancestral land, where my butter bonanza concludes. Since it first won the butter prize at the 1900 Paris Exposition,  Échiré has racked up the awards. Charles de Gaulle visited the cooperative in 1963, and today it’s known as the “butter of presidents.” L’Atelier d’Excellence museum-store offers pastry and baking workshops.

Founded in 1905, the nearby Pamplie cooperative collects milk from 60 farms within 50 miles. Every day 160,000 liters of milk are transformed into nearly eight tons of churned butter, under the watchful eye (and ear) of the master buttermaker. “He can determine when the butter is ready by the sound in the churn,” says director Marie Eck, noting that “what cows eat directly affects the spreadability of butter.”

Awarded the “Living Heritage Company” distinction, Pamplie is the region’s last independent dairy cooperative. Its objective is to maintain milk production to ensure its independence, so it supports young farmers looking to install in the area. Leaving the creamery, I stop at the boutique to stock up on the salted butter my family hoards in their freezer. Fun fact: Pamplie makes the butter for the Monoprix Gourmet brand, so you can buy it at Monoprix stores countrywide. 

What to see and do in Poitou-Charentes

Open from April to October in Échiré village, the Chateau du Coudray-Salbart medieval castle hosts seasonal events. Nearby, the Marais Poitevin, or “Green Venice,” is a wetland wonder created by 9th-century monks as they reclaimed land for agricultural use. Rent a flat-bottomed boat in Coulon to navigate the waterways. The Vélo Francette cycling route, connecting Normandy to the Atlantic, passes through Échiré. On the coast, the picturesque port of La Rochelle is home to Nina Métayer pastry shops, and chef Christopher Coutanceau’s acclaimed restaurants.

(Seven of the best villages in France for food-lovers)