[3] Harel née Fontaine[3] grew up in Camembert, a commune included in the Normandy region,[4] which was an area that consisted of a rural village that, at the time, specialized in agriculture because of the fertile nearby fields and orchards.

[8] Bonvoust was said to have provided Harel with knowledge of the Brie-making process—a technique he learned as a cheesemaker himself—allowing her to carefully cultivate her own spin of his recipe.

In perfecting this recipe, Harel decided to create the cheese in smaller wheels rather than the larger ones of Brie, later affecting its supply chain efficiency.

[10] This new innovative cheese eventually made its way to the food packs of WW1 soldiers because of its ability to maintain freshness after the invention of mass produced round wooden boxes.

[12] Later in 1944, the statue was destroyed after a bombardment by Allied forces in the second World War, but was later funded and rebuilt in the same place in 1953 by a group of farmers based in Van Wert, Ohio.