We visited about 5 villages in all in the Basse Normandy (Lower Normandy) region. This is also the Calvados department, where there is a cider route (more below).
Each village we visited was beautiful with all the medieval, half timbered houses which I love especially the french bleu colour.
Thean and Doris went to the tourist info centre whilst K and I were snoozing on the first afternoon we were there. The lady there kindly suggested a few villages to visit, including her favourite, Beaumont-en-auge. She added that Beuvron-en-auge has also won an award for one of the most beautiful villages in France. Another good one near these two is a bigger town called Pont L'eveque. This post would be pictures galore as you can imagine. Get ready!
This town hosts one of the last few manufacturers of kaleidoscopes in France.
I loved this blue half timbered house (below) which is a newsagent today.
Midway we even drove past this tiny village called Bourgeauville which I just checked- a population of 122 people as at 2008. We could not see any high street but just a village church and that was it. We didn't even see anybody! With that we continued our journey. We decided we needed to have lunch at a bigger village, such as the next.
Population: 4,202 (as at 2008)
This town was severely damaged in a 2 day battle in August 1944.
There is a famous cheese named after this town.
We proceed to walk in the rain - this trip we needed to have the umbrella on hand most of the time - and tried to look for a nice place for lunch. As we didn't really know where to go (the main street is pretty long), K impatiently decided a place for us all. Which we all regretted once we sat down and saw the menu lol. We felt bad to leave hence decided to be positive about it. Alas… it was not meant to be. There must be a reason why it was not crowded.
Once we left, we walked further on and suddenly saw so many nicer looking cafes and restaurants which were all brimming with people. Nevermind, we consoled ourselves that we could buy some nice french pastries and have some tea later.
Population: 222 (as at 2008)
Thean spotted a very old lady living in one of the houses who looked like she was 100. She was peeling some prawns and eating her lunch and Thean was so intrigued. Apparently she slowly looked up and saw him - she did not look very happy I heard!
Ahh and then there is this shop that stole my heart. And probably many more. It is a ker-ching machine because there are not too many shops in this place and everything in there is just screaming "buy me, buy me!".
So this shop is beside the 100 year old grandma's home. It is so interesting to see that right beside it, which we assume to be another shop, is someone's home. They sells lots of pretty things - french scarves, table linen, hats, home accessories… and there was a cute dog helping to tend the shop too!
We decided to visit a cider farm as this region of Calvados is known for their apple cider. In fact there is a cider route and this place is one of them.
Pierre Huet is a famous one in the area and we managed to arrive 30min before they closed and had some sample. As we only had hand carry we were not able to buy any back to London with us. Which was a pity because I really liked one of them.
It was wonderful to be able to drive through the French countryside (thank you drivers!), seeing how people live in small villages and observe their livelihood. I remember seeing two boys cycling towards me in the quiet town of Beaumont-en-auge and I looked at them, wondering how their life here is. Would they want to move to Paris eventually to work?
As you see the population of such places are dwindling, it is sad to think 50 years from now - you do wonder what would happen to them. Would they still survive? Living in these places, the folks here must do feel so removed from Paris. They are so different! I really hope so they continue to exist and hope that the authorities continue to preserve these beautiful buildings.
Each village we visited was beautiful with all the medieval, half timbered houses which I love especially the french bleu colour.
Thean and Doris went to the tourist info centre whilst K and I were snoozing on the first afternoon we were there. The lady there kindly suggested a few villages to visit, including her favourite, Beaumont-en-auge. She added that Beuvron-en-auge has also won an award for one of the most beautiful villages in France. Another good one near these two is a bigger town called Pont L'eveque. This post would be pictures galore as you can imagine. Get ready!
Beaumont-en-auge
Population: 458 (as at 2008)This town hosts one of the last few manufacturers of kaleidoscopes in France.
I loved this blue half timbered house (below) which is a newsagent today.
Pont L'eveque
"pont ler-vec"Population: 4,202 (as at 2008)
This town was severely damaged in a 2 day battle in August 1944.
There is a famous cheese named after this town.
We proceed to walk in the rain - this trip we needed to have the umbrella on hand most of the time - and tried to look for a nice place for lunch. As we didn't really know where to go (the main street is pretty long), K impatiently decided a place for us all. Which we all regretted once we sat down and saw the menu lol. We felt bad to leave hence decided to be positive about it. Alas… it was not meant to be. There must be a reason why it was not crowded.
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| The mehh lunch place |
Once we left, we walked further on and suddenly saw so many nicer looking cafes and restaurants which were all brimming with people. Nevermind, we consoled ourselves that we could buy some nice french pastries and have some tea later.
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| Our lovely travelling companions |
Beuvron-en-auge
Les plus beaux villages de France - award winning villagePopulation: 222 (as at 2008)
Thean spotted a very old lady living in one of the houses who looked like she was 100. She was peeling some prawns and eating her lunch and Thean was so intrigued. Apparently she slowly looked up and saw him - she did not look very happy I heard!
We decided we wanted to linger here a bit longer by having tea here. We bought some pastries from the village bakery and proceeded to this cute and iconic cafe you see below. It is actually someone's home and they have an extended kitchen area which they converted to a cafe. The rule was: you bring your sandwiches or pastries, and they serve you drinks to go along. When we went to their toilet, we could look into their own kitchen - there was an old school TV playing in the background while a French lady was busy folding some clothes with some dinner cooking on the stove. How interesting!
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| We contemplated having some crepes here |
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| But we settled for this instead |
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| You can probably tell how much we love this cafe and it's facade. |
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| Someone snoozing while the rest of us were raving about how cute this village is. "Let me poke poke him" |
Ahh and then there is this shop that stole my heart. And probably many more. It is a ker-ching machine because there are not too many shops in this place and everything in there is just screaming "buy me, buy me!".
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| All these french shabby chic prettiness in one place |
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| Even the dog is so cute! |
So this shop is beside the 100 year old grandma's home. It is so interesting to see that right beside it, which we assume to be another shop, is someone's home. They sells lots of pretty things - french scarves, table linen, hats, home accessories… and there was a cute dog helping to tend the shop too!
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| Secretly snapped a pic of some of the scarves they have. For every design they have it in at least 4 colours so you get really confused. And probably buy more than one. Speaking from experience here! |
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| Torn between them! |
Cambremer
Population: 1,096 (as at 2008)We decided to visit a cider farm as this region of Calvados is known for their apple cider. In fact there is a cider route and this place is one of them.
Pierre Huet is a famous one in the area and we managed to arrive 30min before they closed and had some sample. As we only had hand carry we were not able to buy any back to London with us. Which was a pity because I really liked one of them.
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| Understanding the different types of apple cider they make |
It was a long day. In fact at the end of the day, all the places we visited seemed a blur. We went back to the hotel (shall not mention the very stressful drive back within Trouville-sur-mer as we endeavoured to find parking). Thank God that we managed to go to a really nice restaurant that night to compensate for the mehhh lunch we had :)
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| My fat juicy succulent scallops! |
It was wonderful to be able to drive through the French countryside (thank you drivers!), seeing how people live in small villages and observe their livelihood. I remember seeing two boys cycling towards me in the quiet town of Beaumont-en-auge and I looked at them, wondering how their life here is. Would they want to move to Paris eventually to work?
As you see the population of such places are dwindling, it is sad to think 50 years from now - you do wonder what would happen to them. Would they still survive? Living in these places, the folks here must do feel so removed from Paris. They are so different! I really hope so they continue to exist and hope that the authorities continue to preserve these beautiful buildings.
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