One cheesemaker in the Vosges area was left with many unsold munster cheeses on his hands, so he stored some in the cellar and forgot about them.
But when Lionel Vaxelaire, who owns 25 cows and converts all their milk into the strong-smelling, soft white munster cheese, rediscovered his cheeses, he found something interesting.
They had developed a greenish-grey flowery rind and a completely new flavour.
He told local French news: "We left about 60 munsters at the bottom of the cellar. We even forgot about them a bit. After a month of maturing, we tasted one that had new flavours!
"It lies between our Munster and a Camembert type. It's chalky inside,
with a greyish, mottled flowery rind. It took all the flora of our whole
raw milk and the flora of the cellar.
"This cheese matured on its own for four weeks, unlike Munster, which needs to be washed every day."
The new cheese has proved a hit on local markets in the Vosges region,
so much so that Vaxelaire has put a new batch into the cellar to mature.
It's name is to be le confiné - the locked down.
Le confiné joins a rich tradition as one of France's best-known cheeses
was apparently also invented by accident. Legend has it that Roquefort
cheese was created after a medieval shepherd boy left his lunch of bread
and sheep's milk cheese in a cave when he went off to attempt to
romance a local girl.
When he came back, his cheese was covered in blue mould but tasted delicious. History does not recall whether he got the girl.
