Nicolas Vieillard, owner of Sagesse, microbrewery and taproom in Le Breuil-en-Auge, Normandy. Photo GLK.
Oh, the people you’ll meet and the food and drink you’ll taste when you leave the main roads in Normandy! Is your destination Deauville, Honfleur and the Flowered Coast or is it Caen, Bayeux and the D-Day Landing Beaches? Either way, let’s veer off at Pont l’Evêque for several tastes of Pays d’Auge, Auge Country: cheese, beer and apple brandy. Second in this three-part series, beer (and cider).
Cidre–(hard) cider—is a pleasing, inexpensive, low-alcohol beverage that marries well with certain cheeses. Geography makes that especially true in Normandy since the region, known for its semi-soft cow cheeses, grows 60% of France’s cider apples. The tartness of cidre brut (cider with low added sugar) suits the strong nose of washed-rind Pont l’Evêque or Livarot, and it can also accompany Camembert de Normandie, while the latter and cidre demi-sec (semi-sweet cider) can also make for worthy companions at the end of a meal.
Within Normandy, Pays d’Auge—Auge Country, a swatch of rural greenery between the Flowered Coast (Honfleur to Cabourg) and Lisieux—is prime territory for apple orchards. The apples are used to make Cidre Pays d’Auge, one of a handful of cider appellations in Normandy, as well as Calvados Pay d’Auge, a double-distilled apple brandy.
So having visited Jérôme and Françoise Spruytte to learn about farm-made Pont l’Evêque cheese, a local-minded traveler might stop in at a Pays d’Auge cider producer or any grocery or beverage shop to pick up a bottle of cider to enjoy with a baguette and a square of Pont l’Evêque before seeking the picture postcard picnic spot: a seat by an apple tree with a Norman cow grazing nearby and a half-timbered house in the background.
But wait: Is that a microbrewery in the village of Le Breuil-en-Auge, a few miles from the Spruyttes’ farm? Yes, indeed: Sagesse.
We’d been center of the village of Le Breuil earlier in the afternoon for a lovely lunch at Le Dauphin, where Chef Mathieu Le Guillois prepared a prettily plated meal of refined, fresh fare. Now we backtracked to Sagesse, the brewery/taproom just across the street. With all due respect to local cider producers, we entered Sagesse to discuss craft beer with owner Nicolas Vieillard. Sagesse is the French word for wisdom so it seemed a sensible thing to do.
There’s a sociological study to be made of friendly microbrewers who formerly worked in IT and now have long beards and brew beer named with references from film and literature. I’d met Nicolas seven or so years ago when he was a clean-shaven Parisian suburbanite brewing in Maisons-Laffitte. He and his wife Valérie, who designs the labels, moved to Le Breuil-en-Auge in 2018. (The beard grew out during Covid lockdown.) He’d now gone native, so to speak, by brewing a range of quality organic craft beer mostly using Norman malts and French hops, to be enjoyed in a rustic taproom (open Thurs.-Sat. from 4pm) in this Norman village, population 1000—or purchased in shops in Normandy.
What beer to choose for our pairing?
Nicolas says that he particularly likes pairing the range of his beers with a variety of young and aged Neufchâtel, the heart-shaped cheese produced in the northwestern portion of Normandy. But conceding to my point that we were in Pont l’Evêque and Livarot territory, he suggested a bottle of La Reine des Plages, a light lager, to accompany a younger Pont l’Evêque, and La Fiancé du Pirate, a crafty red, to accompany a more aged Pont l’Evêque. Personally, I took a liking to L’Imperatrice, Sagesse’s stout, which would pair best with a Livarot, a stronger cheese.
The taproom is open Thursday, Friday and Saturday, 4-9pm. Earlier or on other days, you can try ringing the bell at the brewery, and if someone answers you might plead gently with that person to sell you some bottles to go. Otherwise, the village grocer (closed Sunday afternoon and Monday) sells Sagesse, as do many other grocers and beverage shops in the region.
As I mentioned above, you can then seek out the picture postcard picnic spot by an apple orchard. But having veered off from a pairing of cheese with cider, you might deviate from that cliché to head over to Lac Terre d’Auge, a lake that also lends itself to summer swimming just outside of Pont l’ l’Evêque.
Sagesse, 4 Rue André Druelle, 14130 Le Breuil-en-Auge, 06 30 56 65 89. Taproom open Thursday, Friday and Saturday 4-9pm.
Le Dauphin, 2 rue de l’Eglise, 14130 Le Breuil-en-Auge. 02 31 65 08 11. Closed Sunday dinner, Monday, Wednesday dinner.
Official tourist information about this portion of Pays d’Auge can be found here.
Return to Part 1 of this series: Cheese: Jérôme Spruytte’s Pont l’Evêque.
© 2022, Gary Lee Kraut