How to spend a weekend in rural Normandy, from Camembert to castles

Normandy’s bucolic heart shows off the best of la belle France. Staunchly agricultural, no other region devotes so much of its land to pastoral farming. And this plays out across its culinary experiences, from baking cider bread in the centurion-stone oven of a apple orchard to sampling the heavenly taste of buttery camembert, handcrafted with passion and ancestral know-how on a family farm.

Cruising empty country lanes in the Pays d’Auge is a blissful invitation to slow right down. The chequerboard sweep of fertile green, hedge-trimmed fields, peppered with patchy white-and-chestnut Normande cows and half-timbered farmsteads, is magnificently scenic by car or bicycle. Apple and pear orchards blaze pink in spring and fire-red in autumn, while feasting on seasonal fruits in pretty village auberges (inns) is an epicurean highlight. Eco-minded chefs here were cooking up a gastronomic storm with local, organic farm produce long before the trend for ‘zero mile cuisine’ was coined. 

History buffs won’t be disappointed, either. William the Conqueror grew up in the rolling hills of Suisse Normande, later shipping creamy Caen limestone across the Channel as Norman king of England to build the White Tower at the Tower of London. The region is also packed with beautifully preserved chateaux, displays of Renaissance splendour with witch-hat turrets and moat-filled gardens. Tour, taste and, at the end of each day, finish your meal the way locals do in this tradition-fuelled, down-to-earth part of Normandy — with a heart-warming calvados digestif. 

Day one, villages & cider

Morning
Exploring the rainbow of open-air stalls at the market in Pont-l’Évêque, famed for its eponymous AOP cheese, is a rendezvous with the epicurean soul of this small riverside town. Follow your nose to Fromagerie René’s stand and buy a square of washed-rind cheese packed in a poplar-wood box. Tastings of thick ambrosial cream made from unpasteurised milk and slow-cooked teurgoule normande, a cinnamon-rice pudding, from La Ferme de la Bourgeoterie are equally fragrant. Drive 10 minutes north in Pays d’Auge to Christian Drouin, a 17th-century farm where the Drouin family have double-distilled cider to make calvados since 1960. Guided tours take in the apple orchards, artisan distillery and the ageing half-timbered barn where the apple brandy turns mahogany-gold over time in oak casks.

Afternoon
Follow hedgerow-cut lanes to Beaumont-en-Auge. This is where Europe’s last remaining kaleidoscope maker, visiting from Paris in 1976, bought a half-timbered cottage in which to set up shop. In Dominic Stora’s whimsical shop, Après la Pluie, marvel at the handcrafted optical toys. Then, browse neighbouring fashion boutiques and antiques galleries, and grab a bite on the aptly named rue du Paradis. Afterwards, drive 20 minutes south to the village of Cambremer, springboard for the Route du Cidre driving itinerary, with a Romanesque church and art exhibitions in a medieval grange. Visit the Jardins des Pays d’Auge to see flower gardens evoking the angels, the devil and more.

Evening
It’s a 15-minute country lane wiggle past stud farms and cideries to Beuvron-en-Auge. Above the village, admire the 12th-century Chapelle de Clermont then drop down to the square. You might recognise the horseshoe of timbered houses huddled around the old market hall from David Hockney’s Beuvron-en-Auge Panorama painting; he lives nearby. Linger over an aperitif at Coiffeur — a bar that was the village hairdresser until 1972. Or head directly to the traditional dining room of Le Pavé d’Auge for dinner. Chef Jerome Bansard champions the region’s earthy riches, but his refined Norman cuisine is soufflé-light. Don’t skip Normandy’s famous four-cheese course: camembert, neufchâtel, pont-l’évêque and livarot — eaten in that order, with a dollop of thick crème d’Isigny.

Day two, history & camembert

Morning
Begin your foray through Norman feudal history in Falaise in Suisse Normande, the birthplace of William the Conqueror. Pay homage to the warrior king at his statue on Place Guillaume le Conquérant. The stone-paved square also has a retired Sherman M4A1 fighter tank, stencilled in 2019 by French street artist Jef Aérosol, celebrating peace since the Battle of Normandy. Walk up the ramp and across the rampart to plunge into 11th-century drama and gore at Chateau de Falaise. The stone fortress (where William was born, the illegitimate son of a duke) offers digital tablets that guide visitors around the impenetrable keeps and menacing Talbot Tower, once home to birds destined for the banquet table and tamed weasels tasked with keeping rats at bay.

Afternoon
Wind 20 minutes southwest through pea-green pastures to Les Roches d’Oëtre, a rocky precipice with views of gorges carved by the River Rouvre. From the car park, follow the Sentier des Corniches footpath to the viewpoint. Or pick up a map in the visitor centre for details of longer trails that drop down to the river. Round off the afternoon at Ferme du Champs Secret. Patrick Mercier’s family farm produce AOP camembert fermier-certified farmhouse camembert, crafted in situ from the unpasteurised milk of its herd of 110 Normande cows. Everything, from ladling the curds into moulds to turning 700 cheeses a day, is done by hand. Before leaving, grab a round from the fridge and pop £4 in the honesty box.

Evening
Close your camembert journey with an early-evening aperitif in the village where France’s best-known cheese was born in 1791. Arrive by 5pm to romp through the village of Camembert’s history and popular culture at the museum. You’ll discover that camembert only became a national icon from 1918, when local farmers sent weekly cheese parcels to French soldiers. The same museum ticket gives you access to the neighbouring Fromagerie du Clos de Beaumoncel, where you can peek through glass at the humid ripening room, and try pasteurised and raw milk camemberts at Maison du Camembert, uphill past the church. Linger over an aperitif of oven-baked camembert and pommeau (a sweet blend of cider and calvados).

Three more adventures around the vallée d’Orne

The River Orne flows through the Vallée d’Orne on its 94-mile journey north from Lower Normandy into the English Channel at Ouistreham, and you can bathe, paddle and splash at multiple points along its banks.

1. Canoeing & kayaking
West of Falaise, pretty little Clécy is the area’s primary outdoor-activity hub and viewpoint to catch a bird’s-eye sweep of the valley. Fuel up on coffee and picnic fare at the boulangerie on main square, Place du Tripot, before heading down to the river. Capa Venture rents canoes, kayaks and standup paddleboards. Paddle serene waters beneath the soaring arches of Clécy’s huge viaduct, built in 1866. Or join a more challenging half- or full-day kayaking expedition. Minibuses shuttle river explorers upstream to Pont d’Ouilly, from where it’s an eight-mile paddle with occasional rapids back to Clécy. Guingettes, pop-up summer cafes, on riverbanks along the way provide a dash of vintage cool a la Renoir.

2. Taking the waters
In 2022, the belle époque spa town of Bagnoles-de-l’Orne became the first destination in France to receive a gold-certified Green Destinations award for sustainability from the Global Tourism Sustainable Council. French ‘curists’ have travelled here to take the thermal waters here since the Middle Ages. Combine a soak in the pool, fed by an underground spring, at B’O Spa Thermal with leisurely forest walks through a labyrinth of 300-year-old oaks in the protected Forêt d’Andaine. If you have a hankering for the old-school glamour of Honfleur on the coast, Bagnoles’ historic quarter of opulent art deco villas — east of the town’s centrepiece lake — is its inland soul sister.

3. Bungee jumping
To ramp up the pace, join adrenaline junkies at the Souleuvre Viaduct, a 40-minute drive west of Clécy, a little west of Vallée de l’Orne. French engineer Gustave Eiffel masterminded the viaduct above the River Souleuvre in 1893 and trains to Caen trundled across it until 1960 when the railway line closed. From the highest of the five remaining granite-stone pillars, bungee jumpers at Skypark now make death-defying leaps of faith while enjoying stupendous aerial views of Normandy’s patchwork quilt of fields on the heart-thumping, 200ft fall down to the river below. You can ask to be plunged waist-deep into the water if you dare. A zip-line and giant swing cater to the less intrepid.