Comply with the Normandy cheese path and uncover sleepy villages, dairy farms and rolling fields – plus style a number of the creamiest, most delectable cheeses on this planet. Gillian Thornton samples and sips her means via cheese and cider nation.
In 1962, former French President Charles de Gaulle famously bemoaned the challenges of governing a rustic ‘with 246 totally different sorts of cheese’. So the duty have to be even tougher for immediately’s President. Sixty years on from De Gaulle’s gastronomic analogy, France now lists over 400 varieties, together with greater than 60 which were awarded Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée (AOC) standing in France and, extra just lately the European label, Appellation d’Origine Protegée (AOP).
Comply with the Normandy cheese path
French cheeses are available in all shapes, sizes and strengths, lovingly produced on each artisan and industrial scale from the milk of cows, goats and even sheep. However while some are appreciated solely of their native space, one French cheese is legendary all through the world. One in all 4 AOC cheeses to come back from the luxurious farmland of Normandy, Camembert is immediately recognisable with its distinctive round form, wood field and vibrant label.
Camembert
Normandy’s magnificent shoreline is legendary for its top of the range seafood however flip your again on the ocean and the bocage panorama of cattle meadows and apple orchards mix to provide the proper cheese course, to not point out a variety of liquid accompaniments to hold you from apéro to digestif. Even higher, you’ll be able to all the time discover somebody keen to indicate you ways these signature merchandise are made and to promote you their produce direct from supply – simply ask at any native vacationer workplace or go to normandie.tourisme.fr for inspiration.
Bocage doesn’t get far more stunning than within the Pays d’Auge which lies east of Caen, ducal HQ for William of Normandy within the 11th century and the final resting place of this illegitimate son who took England’s prime job in 1066 as King William I. Assume small, wooded valleys and wealthy pastures lined with thick hedgerows, spring bushes laden with apple blossom, and conventional half-timbered homes. That is inland Normandy at its most picturesque with a number of the most fetching cattle you’ll see anyplace – brown and white with uniform brown eye patches.
Camembert’s Historical past
Unfold out across the city of Lisieux, the Pays d’Auge is the birthplace of conventional Camembert, invented by farmer’s spouse Marie Harel. There’s a statue of her – and in addition one among a really high-quality cow – within the small city of Vimoutiers, however her well-known cheese was created on the Manoir de Beaumoncel within the close by hamlet of Camembert in 1791.
A priest fleeing from revolutionaries in his native space of Brie shared a cheese manufacturing secret with Madame Harel, who went on to create the cheese we all know immediately. In the course of the First World Conflict, massive portions had been despatched to French troops on the Western Entrance to spice up morale, serving to to show Camembert right into a nationwide image. In 1983, genuine Camembert de Normandie was given protected standing.
Uncover the total story at Maison du Camembert within the coronary heart of the tiny village which features a go to to the adjoining Clos de Beaumoncel cheese manufacturing unit. Right here you’ll be able to look via glass to see how Normandy milk is remodeled into conventional handmade Camembert – as much as 6000 natural and AOP/PDO cheeses per week.
And naturally the go to ends with a comparative tasting of artisan and industrially made Camembert within the on-site store. I lingered too over the show of vibrant pictorial labels commemorating numerous anniversaries of the D-Day Landings in 1944. Each is a mini murals which graphically illustrates the attraction of taking on tyrosemiophilia as a passion. Cheese label gathering to you and me! www.maisonducamembert.com
Livarot
Camembert nestles within the Orne division and a useful signal on the entrance to the village factors the way in which to Normandy’s different AOC cheeses. Simply 15km to the north within the division of Calvados is Livarot-Pays-d-Auge, dwelling city of Livarot with its orange rind and highly effective flavour. Don’t be shocked in case you hear somebody ask for a wedge of ‘Colonel’ – Livarot’s nickname because of the 5 ‘navy’ stripes of reed or paper across the circumference.
Pont-L’Evèque
Comply with the Normandy cheese path and head north once more and 54km from Camembert, nestles between Lisieux and Deauville, nonetheless throughout the Pays d’Auge space of Calvados. Sq. or rectangular in form, its eponymous gentle cheese is roofed with a rind that ranges in color from golden yellow to orange.
Neufchatel
For Normandy’s fourth AOP cheese, you must cross the river Seine to Neufchâtel-en-Bray within the division of Seine-Maritime, 171 km from Camembert. Coated in a skinny white edible layer, Neufchâtel is a favorite for romantic dinners because of its conventional heart-shape that harks again to the Center Ages when native ladies would provide their cheeses to occupying English troops in the course of the Hundred Years Conflict.
Cider of Normandy
Few drinks go higher with Normandy’s flavourful cheeses than a glass of native dry cider or – for the drivers – farm-produced apple juice. Normandy’s apple orchards stretch over a large space, however the self-drive Route du Cidre winds its means via the heartland of the AOC Cidre du Pays d’Auge manufacturing space, linking the villages of Cambremer and Bonnebosq with the postcard-pretty neighborhood of Beuvron-en Auge, categorized amongst Les Plus Beaux Villages de France.
Created in 1974, the Cambremer Cider Route was the primary path in France to be launched by producers eager to advertise the standard of their merchandise and their heat hospitality. Right now you will see that virtually 20 ‘Cru de Cambremer’ producers alongside the route, all open to guests – discover full particulars, together with opening hours, on www.routeducidre.com.
Some farms solely produce cider; others apple juice, cider jelly, and even cheese. Look out too for Pommeau AOC de Normandie, a scrumptious apple aperitif comprised of three-parts pressed apples – or should – to 1 half Calvados, the world’s well-known apple spirit. And while Calvados improves with age – in case you can resist opening it, after all – younger Calvados works significantly effectively in cocktails.
Normandy’s jewels
The Pays d’Auge is a delight for walkers with its mild countryside, timber-framed manor homes, and fairly church buildings, in addition to small stud farms producing the top of the range horses for which Normandy is legendary. There are surprises too. Bonnesbosq has named its sports activities floor after a well-known Hollywood actor who owned a mansion within the neighbourhood – none aside from Yul Brynner, star of 1956 film The King and I and, three years later, The Magnificent Seven. And near Cambremer stands the bijou medieval fortress of Crèvecoeur-en-Auge, which hosts exhibitions and ‘residing historical past’ re-enactments in the course of the summer season months.
Then there’s Beuvron-en-Auge, lower than 20 minutes’ drive from the seaside resort of Cabourg on the Côte Fleurie. Don’t miss it, however do attempt to go to outdoors of peak occasions, particularly in summer season, when its many eating places and tempting vintage retailers are bustling with guests. Anticipate crowds too in the course of the cider pageant in late October. However this elite Plus Beau Village is a gem with its broad sq., lined market and craft workshops, all surrounded by tranquil countryside.
Small surprise that it too has attracted a celeb resident, world-famous British artist David Hockney who moved near the village in 2019. Impressed by the sunshine of Norman skies and the arrival of spring within the Pays d’Auge, Hockney produced a 90-metre frieze from scenes ‘painted’ on an iPad and impressed by the Bayeux Tapestry. First displayed at Salts Mill close to Bradford in his native Yorkshire, A 12 months in Normandie has additionally been exhibited in Paris and most just lately at Bayeux, a wonderful tribute to this tranquil nook of Norman countryside.
By Gillian Thornton, one of many UK’s main journey writers and an everyday author for The Good Life France Journal and web site.
Craving a tacky feast? Do that boozy baked Camembert recipe to dip, dunk and dollop chunks of bread in, crackers, or a really straightforward to make tarte de soleil which is able to give this dish a complete load of wow issue attraction!
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