Nibbling around NORMANDY

Nibbling around NORMANDY Gillian Thornton samples and sips her way through cheese and cider country. In 1962, former French President Charles de Gaulle famously bemoaned the challenges of governing a country ‘with 246 different kinds of cheese’. So the task must be even harder for today’s President. Sixty years on from De Gaulle’s gastronomic analogy, France now lists over 400 varieties, including more than 60 that have been awarded Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée (AOC) status in France and, more recently the European label, Appellation d’Origine Protegée (AOP). French cheeses come in all shapes, sizes and strengths, lovingly produced on both artisan and industrial scale from the milk of cows, goats and even sheep. But whilst some are appreciated only in their local area, one French cheese is famous throughout the world. One of four AOC cheeses to come from the lush farmland of Normandy, Camembert is instantly recognisable with its distinctive circular shape, wooden box and colourful label. Normandy’s magnificent coastline is famous for its top quality seafood but turn your back on the sea and the bocage landscape of cattle meadows and apple orchards combine to produce the perfect cheese course, not to mention a range of liquid accompaniments to carry you from apéro to digestif. Even better, you can always find someone willing to show you how these signature products are made and to sell you their produce direct from source – just ask at any local tourist office or go to normandie.tourisme.fr for inspiration. Bocage doesn’t get much more beautiful than in the Pays d’Auge which lies east of Caen, ducal HQ for William of Normandy in the 11th century and the last resting place of this illegitimate son who took England’s top job in 1066 as King William I. Think small, wooded valleys and rich pastures lined with thick hedgerows, spring trees laden with apple blossom, and traditional half-timbered houses. This is inland Normandy at its most picturesque with some of the most fetching cattle you’ll see anywhere – brown and white with uniform brown eye patches. Spread out around the town of Lisieux, the Pays d’Auge is the birthplace of traditional Camembert, invented by farmer’s wife Marie Harel. There’s a statue of her – and also one of a very fine cow – in the small town of Vimoutiers, but her famous cheese was created at the Manoir de Beaumoncel in the nearby hamlet of Camembert in 1791. A priest fleeing from revolutionaries in his native area of Brie shared a cheese manufacturing secret with Madame Harel, who went on to create the cheese we know today. During the First World War, large quantities were sent to French troops on the Western Front to boost morale, helping to turn Camembert into a national symbol. In 1983, authentic Camembert de Normandie was given protected status. 46 | The Good Life France The Good Life France | 47