On the triple occasion of the 80th anniversary of D-Day, an exhibition of Ian Patrick’s portraits of Normandy veterans at the Army Museum at the Invalides in Paris, and the publication of the expanded second edition of D-Day Portraits: Héros Anonymes – Anonymous Heroes, his collection of portraits and first-hand accounts of veterans of the Invasion of Normandy who have returned over the years, I sat down with Ian to discuss his relationship with Normandy, with WWII veterans, and with the veteran who first awakened his interest in the “anonymous heroes” of the invasion that changed the course of the war: his father.

Ian Patrick is an American-born photographer, now a dual citizen, who moved to Paris in 1979 after launching a successful career as a portraitist in New York, where he photographed such well-known cultural figures of the time as Bob Marley and Andy Warhol, among others. It wasn’t until Ian was living in France that his father, William Patrick, when visiting, told him that he had taken part in the Invasion of Normandy 1944. Together, in 1980, they visited Utah Beach, where his father had landed six days after D-Day. Since then, Ian has returned frequently to the D-Day Landing Zone to photograph veterans of the Invasion of Normandy. With the disappearance of the generation that fought in the Second World War, his 44-year project of photographing veterans is coming to an end.

What do you remember of the first time you visited the D-Day Landing Zone?

It was 1979. I’d done a photography job in La Rochelle, and since my assistant and I weren’t in a rush to get the car back to Paris, we drove up the Atlantic coast and cut across to Normandy. I remember seeing the sign for Omaha Beach and driving down to the beach and saying, “Well, there’s nothing here!” We drove up and down the beach a couple times, unimpressed, and then went up to the cemetery where we got the jaw-drop view of the tombs and the channel beyond the cliff. But we didn’t spend much time in the area because we had to get back to Paris.

Then the next time you went back was with your father?

Yes. In 1980. My father flew over on a military plane, which he could do for free as a career military man. He flew from California to Dover, Delaware, from Dover to the Azores, from the Azores to Ramstein, Germany. Then he took the train to Paris, Gare de l’Est, and walked over to our apartment by the canal [Saint-Martin]. Sometimes he’d just show up, without letting us know he was coming. But this time we knew he was coming because he wanted to meet Véronique, my fiancée at the time, before we got married.

After a few days in Paris, he was bored and he said, “How about taking me up to Normandy?” And I said, “Sure, Dad, but if it’s Calvados [apple brandy] you want we can get it in Paris.” And he said, “Yeh, I’d like some Calvados, too, but I’d like to visit Normandy because I was there in the war.” I said, “You never told me about that.” He said, “Well, let’s go up there and I’ll tell you all about it.”

At the time I had a “Quatrelle,” one of those funky little Renault cars, that wasn’t exactly a bomb on the road. Dad didn’t want to go on the freeway but on the smaller national roads because he figured he’d recognize all kinds of stuff. As soon as we got into Normandy, which you do fairly quickly from Paris, he started noticing signs for Calvados and he asked me why were there so many of them. I told him that there are lots of farmers who make and sell Calvados. He said, “Let’s go get some.” We were still two hours from the beach. We went into one, where I introduced my father and told the farmer that he wanted to try some Calvados. The farmer said, “Here’s 7 years, 10 years, 15 years.” My father said, “Let’s start with the 10 years.” He tasted it and he said, “My god, this is so much better than the stuff we had during the war. Get three bottles of that.” I said, “Three bottles, Dad?” He said, “Yeh, one for you, one for me, and one for right now.”

So we started drinking it at 9 o’clock in the morning and by the time we got to Utah Beach, we were feeling “in our cups,” as they used to say, and he started talking to me about his time in the war. He landed at Utah Beach on June 12, so the beach had been won by then, of course, but there were still corpses around. My father had started off the war as a pilot but blew his eardrums out, so they put him on the ground, which he was really disappointed about. He was an armorer, making sure that guns were perfectly in alignment and worked and the bombs properly place, anything to do with ammunition. They had a special place on the airstrip where they could lift the tail up and fire at targets to make sure that the guns were aligned correctly. What’s incredible is that they actually had gun cameras on those machine guns and rockets so that same evening the films were developed and they would project them in the barn of the farm where they were staying and write down what needed to be done. And they saw the carnage they were creating for the Germans.

When he arrived on the 12th, the airstrip where he was assigned, which was just behind Sainte Mère Eglise, was still being finished by the Corps of Engineers. It was being made so that their P47s wouldn’t have to go back to England to refuel and rearm. He was there until the end of August, after the Germans had been hammered in the Falaise Gap. From there he went to Le Mans, then Nancy, then Saint Dizier, and also provided support for the Battle of Hürtgen Forest and the Battle of the Bulge. They put special pouches under the wings to drop ammunition and supplies to the men who were stuck in the Hürtgen Forest. They then moved into Germany.

I knew practically nothing of this before going to Normandy with him. I knew that he was in the war but he never talked about it. He was a career army man but he never talked about the war. I lived on army bases as a kid and saw army stuff all the time. When you’re a little kid you play army but you don’t necessarily ask your father if he ever killed any Germans or stuff like that. It was with our trip to Normandy that he started talking about it.

Why do you think it took your father so long after the war to come to Normandy given that returning there came to mean so much to him?

My parents came to Paris in 1950 on their honeymoon from Austria, where my father was stationed. My mother was already pregnant with me. I have photographs of him in his uniform at the Eiffel Tower—in those days you had to wear your uniform when you traveled. They also went to Nice. After I was born, we lived in Austria and later we lived in Germany. We’d go on vacation to the French Riviera or the Italian Riviera. They liked going to Vienna as well. But Dad never talked about the war. After we moved to the U.S., they loved coming back to Europe because they lived a long time here. But Normandy wouldn’t have been a place that he would think of going with my mother. So when he came to visit alone that time, it was an opportunity for him to go and for me to go with him. My mother had no interest in the war. But when she came with him later, she realized the effort and the massiveness of the invasion and… you can’t help, even if you’re opposed to the military and to war, you can’t help but take your hat off to those people who were a part of it and who lived through it. My parents returned may times, especially my father.

That trip with your father, to whom you dedicate “Anonymous Heroes,” your book of veterans’ portraits and their first-hand accounts, must have been the spark to your interest in photographing veterans.

Yes. We drove up and down the Utah Beach that first time. He showed me certain bunkers where he would tell me what kind of shell had hit it to make the hole or the mark on it, using all this military jargon. He was into ammunition because that was his job. Then he wanted to find the farm where the airstrip had been. Of course, the strip was no longer there, and there was no sign marking where it had been. Also, most farmers in the area didn’t want visitors. But we drove into one farm in my “Quatrelle,” where we met a lady named Alice. It was lunchtime, and she and the family came out with their napkins in their hands. “Oui, Monsieur?” she said to me. “Excusez-nous,” I said, “Mon papa est vétéran…” and right away she said to him, “Entrez, monsieur.” So we went in and they brought out two plates and we sat down to eat with them. My father was in tears, he couldn’t believe it. Their welcome was so sweet. At the end of the meal, the farmer went out to the barn, or wherever he went, and he comes back with a half-full dirty old bottle of dark alcohol, and written in chalk on the bottle was “1944.” He gave us each a little snort of it. It was absolutely delicious and my father started crying again. He said, “This isn’t the kind of stuff that we had in 1944. What we had was green rotgut, whatever we could find that the Germans left behind.” From there we went into Sainte Mère Eglise and we meet other people who then invited us in for coffee. My father couldn’t believe the welcome we were receiving. I took some pictures of him on the beach and in different places.

After that I decided to go up there every year on the sixth of June, and I would take pictures. Many times, there were no veterans at all. I would go each year, whether my father would come to France or not. Years later, I went to a fair in a hotel in Paris promoting Normandy for the upcoming 50th anniversary [1994]. By that time I’d already done a number of photographs. I met the secretary of the Comité du Débarquement [Landing Committee] and showed her some pictures. She said, “Oh c’est bien!” Then she explained that not only was she a part of the Landing Committee but she was also the director of the Musée de la Tapisserie in Bayeux, and she invited me to show my work in the Salle du Chevalier, which is the vaulted hall that later became the giftshop of the museum. So that was the first exhibition of my Normandy work, which I’d been taking just out of my own interest until then. From then on, she would send me an official invitation to the June 6th ceremonies every year so that I had actual credentials to go wherever I wanted to photograph veterans.

I also then started to interview the veterans, usually calling them on the phone after meeting them since there was no time to interview them during the ceremonies. On the phone, they would speak differently, more freely, as though to themselves, since they were alone and weren’t perturbed by my presence. Sometimes they’d go off track and I’d bring them back with another question. I asked them to tell me about their experience, whatever was bizarre or sad or happy that they wanted to recall. Most of them didn’t talk about terrible stuff. Some of the ones who landed on Omaha Beach did, in a very cold manner. A lot of them didn’t want to talk at all. I just tried to let them tell me what they wanted to tell me.

I wasn’t necessarily meeting them at the ceremonies. I would attend the big ceremonies, and I might come upon a smaller one here and there that I only learned about when I got there. Nine times out of ten it was just serendipity that brought me in contact with a veteran. I have photographed veterans I happened to come upon in the cemeteries while they’re paying homage to a particular person. I got the shot of Major Howard at Pegasus Bridge because the owner of the B&B where we were staying during the anniversary that year [1993] told us about an event that was taking place there on June 5th. So we immediately went there, and there they were, Major Howard and a few men popping Champagne. There weren’t that many people. There were no guys dressed up as paratroopers as you’d see more recently. There was just Madame Gondrée at the café by the bridge when I was in there talking with Bill Millin. Some years when there were few veterans, I would do landscapes, which is why there are some landscapes in the show and in the book, photographs of ceremonies and of places that reek with history.

In my first show for the 50th anniversary there was very little text next to the portraits. Just who they are, were they are, basic facts. Then little by little, as I took more portraits and gathered more stories, I realized that I had material for a book, which I put together with the backing of the Military Museum at the Invalides [in Paris] for the 65th anniversary in 2009. That year I also had exhibitions of my work at the Invalides and at the Museum of the Battle of Normandy in Bayeux, near the British Cemetery. That’s the first time that I put together the photos with the text [first-hand accounts] at an exhibition as well as putting them in the book.

After that first edition I continued to meet veterans, and even since completing the new edition last year I’ve met others. For example, I recently met some Belgian soldiers who managed to get to England during the war and joined up with a brigade that took part in the Invasion of Normandy under British command.

How often did your father return after that first visit?

He would come every two or every five years. He would come for the big ceremonies and some little ones as well. Even if it wasn’t the sixth of June, whenever my parents would come to France they would usually drive to Normandy, even without me.

In the early years of his visits, my father and I would be at Sainte Mère Eglise and school children would come up to him and ask him for his autograph. My father said, “Why do they want an autograph from me? I’m just an old veteran.” I had to bug him to put on his medals. He didn’t want to wear them, it embarrassed him because he thought it would be showing off. He didn’t even bring them for the 65th [2009] though I thought he might. I hadn’t told him in advance, but he was going to get the Legion of Honor at the Invalides that year along with 50 other veterans. I didn’t want to tell him before he got to France because I knew that he would be angry about getting a medal now. Finally, I told him about it when he got to France. He was kind of embarrassed. He hadn’t brought his medals, so I called my sister and asked her to dig through the drawers in his bedroom to find them and to send them asap. She did, and the day of the ceremony I pinned them on him. He complained, “Where the hell did you get those?” But he was enthralled by the whole thing, a big ceremony—he thought it was incredible. Then we all went to Normandy for the 65th anniversary commemorations. They reserved a train for the veterans, red carpet at the station, the band of the Garde Républicaine playing Glen Miller, wine and foie gras on the train. Then a bus took us from Caen to the American Cemetery. My father sat with all of the veterans on the podium, where they all shook Obama’s hand and Sarkozy’s hand. Then we all went back to Paris, exhausted.

He and my mother both passed away a year later, in 2010. They wanted their ashes spread together at Utah Beach, which we did.

Why did you want to put together a new edition of your book?

Because this could be the der des ders, the last flame. There are at least 25 additional veterans in this edition. I’ve met a lot more British and Americans but especially British through British families who live or have vacation homes in Normandy. I’ve gotten to know a lot of people in Normandy over the years. The British and the Dutch get together a lot, say for a drink on a Thursday or Friday evening, and a lot of them have fathers who were veterans. So I’d meet the fathers when they came over. Many of them have become part of the Deep Respect Association, with which I’m involved. [Editor’s note: Created in 2010, Deep Respect is a Normandy-based non-profit whose mission is to preserve and transmit the memory of veterans of the Second World War who contributed to the success of Operation Overload and to help veterans who participated in the Battle of Normandy visit the region.] We take around the veterans when they visit and it’s super interesting listening to them talk about their battles.

A series of your portraits and stories from the book are now on permanent display at the Overlord Museum Ohama Beach that’s located at the round-about where one turns to enter the Normandy American Cemetery. How did that come about?

The museum houses a tremendous collection of war materials—tanks, artillery, much more—started in the 1970s by Michel Leloup. He presented some of it in a museum in Falaise but as he grew the collection he began looking for more space and for a location with potential to draw a wider audience. He died before the project to move it to the site near the American Cemetery was completed. It was opened in 2013 by his son Nicolas.

For the 70th anniversary, in 2014, I had an exhibition at the round-about at Omaha Beach where the big monuments are located. Nicolas saw the exhibition and asked if he could buy some of the photos. I said, “Sure.” He bought about five. Since the veterans in the some of the photographs were at the event, we got pictures of them with the photographs, which they signed, which helped promote the museum. Over the next few years, the museum really took off, so Nicolas decided to expand the museum to show more of the collection, and in part of it he’s now consecrated one long corridor to presenting about 70 of my photographs—a lot of which he bought and some of which I donated—along with the text of the stories the veterans told me. My daughter Leah did the scenography and the soundtrack of 40s music and various sounds (waves, planes, bombs) for the exhibition.

You’ve now been photographing veterans for 44 years. With so few Normandy veterans still with us, and very few able or willing to travel, where does your project go from here?

I’ll still see some veterans this year and possibly next. But since I am basically a portraitist, there will soon no longer be men to photograph. That means that the project is now passing into the archival stage. It’s important to show them. I want to help maintain through the show at the Invalides, the permanent exhibition at the museum and the book the memory of those who are or will soon no longer be around to share their stories first-hand. The portraits are a way of people getting to know these veterans as they were as young men and as they were when I met them.

Where to see Ian Patrick’s photographic work

– His personal website Ian Patrick Photographer.
– Permanent exhibition at the Overlord Museum, near the entrance to the Normandy American Cemetery, Colleville-sur-Mer.
– The book: Héros Anonymes – Anonymous Heroes: D-Day Portraits. The captions and first-hand accounts of veterans are in both English and French. The book is available at major museums in the Normandy Landing Zone—the Overlord Museum, the Airborne Museum in Sainte Mère Eglise, the Arromanches Museum, the Utah Beach Museum and the Pegasus Bridge Museum—as well as at the Army Museum at the Invalides in Paris. It can also be ordered directly from the author by contacting him at ianpatrickphoto@gmail.com.
– Temporary exhibition at the Army Museum at the Invalides, June 1 to August 26, 2024. The exhibition is presented under the arcades surrounding the main courtyard. Entrance is free as it isn’t necessary to purchase to museum ticket in order to enter the courtyard. 129 rue de Grenelle, Paris.

© 2024. Interview conducted by Gary Lee Kraut.
All photos © Ian Patrick.

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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

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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. First in this three-part series, the cheese. Whether you’re a traveler in Normandy or looking for enjoyable tastes elsewhere…

Pont l’Evêque is an unremarkable town that’s lent its name to a memorable cheese. It’s one of the fab four appellation cheeses of Normandy, the others being Camembert de Normandie, Livarot and Neufchâtel. A square, soft, unpressed cheese with a washed rind and a wavy top, Pont l’Evêque can be stinky to the nose but the taste is affable. It varies, depending on the cheese’s age, from creamy mild to a soft mix of grass, leather and hay, without ever entering the stables. It comes in pasteurized and raw-milk versions. But we don’t come to Norman cow country for pasteurized cheeses.

I took a country road in search of the best and most uncommon of the raw-milk versions: Pont l’Evêque fermier. Fermier (farm-made) on the label indicates here that the cheese is made with raw cow milk whose transformation begins soon after milking, while the milk—from cows fed from the pastures and grains of the farm itself—is still warm. All, including its initial aging, is carried out on the same farm.

Meet Jérôme Spruytte, one of only a handful of devotees to producing Pont l’Evêque fermier.

Jérôme is a time-honored cheese crafter who comes from a farming tradition rather than a hipster notion of returning to the soil. His grandfather, also named Jérôme, began making cheese here in the agricultural village of Saint-Philbert-des-Champs in 1933. The current Jérôme maintains an age-old approach starting with cows with a healthy, diverse diet, fed from the farm’s own 370 acres (150 hectares) of varied pastures. Rather, he and Françoise, his wife, do since Françoise also has a hand in this, as well as being well occupied in her role as the mayor of this village of 650.

The couple lives in a house near the village church. Their farm buildings are also across the street from the church. So no need to ask for directions—find the church and you’ll find Jérôme and Françoise Spruytte’s Ferme du Bourg.

Regulations for the Pont l’Evêque appellation call for at least 50% of the milk coming from Norman cows, but the Spruyttes’ cheese is based on a herd of Norman cows only. With a herd of 100, the Spruyttes transform about 20-25% of the farm’s milk production into raw-milk Pont l’Evêque. The rest is sent to other producers in the region to be transformed into Camembert de Normandie. (Note the “de Normandie,” which designates raw-milk camembert produced in Normandy, unlike other camemberts, typically pasteurized, whether made in Normandy or not).

Using 3.6 liters (nearly a US gallon) of milk to produce one medium-size square of Pont l’Evêque, the Spruyttes make 110 cheeses per session, normally two sessions per day, 365 days per year. Call it passion, call it a way of life, call it “this is what we do.” Their Pont l’Evêque is prepared and aged in a small installation on the ground floor and basement of the building where Jérôme’s parent once lived, the oldest part of which dates from the 16th century.

After firming up in its square mold for several day, frequently being turned and positioned in phase with the room’s humidity, the shaped cheese is wrapped and moved to the basement. Aligned, the squares look like journal notebooks on a shelf, ready to record the initial passage of time. They are then taken to a second basement space for further aging. It all looks quite simple (and labor intensive). And that’s the beauty of farm-made cheese that eventually develops a personality that’s rustic to the nose and mellow to the taste.

Pont l’Evêque fermier is aged here at least 18 days (a minimum of 21 days for the larger size) before being available for sale. Most is sold after 25-28 of aging. After 30 days, Jérôme says, locals, accustomed to the availability of younger versions in the countryside, no longer want it, but Parisians do as they often prefer more aged Pont l’Evêque. As for aged versions, Jérôme says that 30-45 days is ideal for his fermier. Test the difference yourself by buying halves of two or three different ages.

Raw-milk artisanal and farm cheeses will change in taste through the year depending on what the cows have been grazing on in a particular season. The variety of pastureland at the farm makes for a rich diet from spring through fall when the cows are out grazing. Though absolute consistency isn’t the aim (like a proud parent, Jérôme welcomes the individuality of each batch, each square), the tastefulness of farm-made cheese is maintained in winter by the cows continuing to enjoy a varied winter diet of grain directly grown on the farm. He nevertheless recognizes the strain that European Union regulations put on producers such as himself as he tries to maintain “the expression of the cheese” from being standardized.

Spend 30 minutes with Jérôme and you’ll understand the earthy heart of cheesemaking as it involves land, cows, cellars and constant work. Spend 30 minutes with Françoise and you’ll want to vote for her to be your mayor, too. While the installations in the house are off-limits to visitors for health reasons, visitors are welcome for a chat and a purchase at the little shack of a shop at the farm. Don’t expect to communicate with Jérôme or Françoise in English but through curiosity. As Françoise says, “When people are interested, we always manage to communicate.”

Pick up your cheese at the farm, buy some bread in the town of Le Breuil-en-Auge (or Pont l’Evêque earlier in your day), then find yourself a spot for a picnic, for example by the beach of the Lac Terre d’Auge, outside the town of Pont L’Evêque, or simply here, by the road, by the church.

Now what to drink with this picnic? Other than for the designated driver, consider accompanying your Pont l’Evêque with Norman cidre (hard cider) or with beer produced by a local brewer whom you’ll soon also meet on these pages.

Jérôme and Françoise Spruytte, Ferme du Bourg, 14130 Saint-Philbert-des-Champs. Tel: 02 31 64 71 99. A 15-minute drive from Pont l’Evêque. Farm shop closed on Sunday afternoons. Present at the Pont l’Evêque food market on Monday mornings.

Pont l’Evêque and surroundings have labeled their territory Terre d’Auge for tourism purposes. See the official tourist information site is terredauge-tourisme.fr. As a traveler, however, there’s no need to know the limits of this specific territory. The beautiful village of Beuvron-en-Auge is a short drive to the west. A short drive to the south is the Basilica of Lisieux, a Catholic pilgrimage destination. Official tourist information about the broader area of Calvados, one of the five departments or sub-regions that comprise Normandy, can be found here.

© 2022, Gary Lee Kraut

Also read this article about the fab four of Norman cheeses and this article about cidre (hard cider) and calvados (apple brandy) on Fance Revisited.

The post Cheese: Jérôme Spruytte’s Pont l’Evêque Fermier (Pays d’Auge, Normandy) appeared first on France Revisited - Life in Paris, Travel in France.

Nevertheless, 35 years ago “bartender” was one of the most promising lines on my resume, and I am not immune to cocktail trends or simply to a good brandy cocktail come aperitif time.

Among the trio of brandies mentioned above, cognac and armagnac, as grape-based spirits, carry more prestige than apple-based calvados, yet calvados is the one I most frequently encounter on my travels for the simple reason that I visit Normandy from Paris more often than I visit Charente or Gascony. One of those visits to Normandy was to the Calvados Nouvelle Vogue International Trophies, an annual bartending competition to create the best calvados-based cocktails.

The competition is held in a different location in Normandy each year in spring, for example the pretty port town of Granville in 2017 and the city of Caen in 2018. I attended last year’s edition and was invited to serve on the jury for the inter-journalist competition. I even had a chummy moment with that year’s master of ceremonies, Colin Field, head bartender of the Hemingway Bar at the Ritz in Paris and the most famous barman in France. That for the photo op.

When it comes to calvados cocktails in particular, the shout-out goes to Marc Jean, who has just celebrated 30 years of tending bar at Le Normandy, the venerable Barrière-owned hotel in Deauville.

Jean began his working life at the age of 16, in 1982, as an apprentice waiter at another of the region’s great historic hotels, the Grand Hôtel de Cabourg. But it was behind the bar that he would make a home for himself. Hired as third barman at the Normandy in 1988, he rose to head barman in 2000. One of the original participants in the Calvados Nouvelle Vogue competition, he is now one of its organizers as well as president of the Association des Barmen de Normandie.

As a Norman born and bred, calvados naturally hold place of honor on his liquor shelves. He has created numerous calvados cocktails. Four of his recipes can be found below.

Before turning to mixology, however, a brief history of the brandy called calvados.

A Brief History of Calvados

Normandy has been prime territory for fermented apple juice, i.e. hard cider, since the early 16th century. The first record of the fermented juice being distilled to make brandy (eau-de-vie in French) dates to 1553. Though produced for centuries, the spirit became largely associated with the Normandy department (or sub-region) named Calvados in the 19th century. In 1942 it gained status as a legally recognized appellation, meaning only apple brandy produced within a specifically delimited zone could be called calvados. Wartime—1942—may seem an odd time to be seeking official appellation status, particularly as the Germans were increasingly building up defenses along the coast in order to repel an eventual Allied invasion. But the war was in fact a major reason for producers to seek regulation of the term calvados for their brandy: during the German Occupation, the only copper stills that were not requisitioned by Germany for military purposes were those used for appellation products. It’s a spirit that Allied soldiers got to know following D-Day during the Battle of Normandy 1944.

Calvados, affectionately known as calva, is largely produced in the Normandy departments of Calvados and Manche (which represent the major of the zone in which the Battle of Normandy took place). There are also designated production zones just over the border in Mayenne and Sarthe and in the area around the town of Neufchatel, further west in Normandy.

AOC (Controlled Appellation of Origin) Calvados represents the majority of brandy production in the region, while two other AOCs within restrained zones are Calvados Pays d’Auge and Calvados Domfrontais. For the latter, produced in area on the southern edge of Normandy that lends itself to growing pears, the brandy is a made from distilling the fermented juice of apples and at least 30% pears.

Calvados Cocktails

For much of its history calvados has been imbibed in its pure state. It has also found its way into the kitchen. And increasingly over the past 20 years it has been used in cocktails. Or 22 years to be precise since a major influence in the spread of the gospel of the calvados cocktail has been the Calvados Nouvelle Vogue competition, which was launched in 1996.

Originally a regional bartending competition, Calvados Nouvelle Vogue International Trophies, as it came to be called, now includes bartenders from 15 countries, mostly European, themselves winners of national competitions which draw 500 competitors. Competitors are judged on creativity, dexterity and the story they tell about the inspiration for their cocktail, along with its taste and presentation. A theme is given each year—this year, vegetables. A Polish bartender, Robert Piasecki took top prize, followed by a Swede and a Belgian.

Last year’s winner, on the theme of the sea, was French bartender Yolanda Fouquet, whose cocktail brought together calvados and beer from Brittany. (She returned as a competitor in 2018 but didn’t make the podium.) A competition among student bartenders and another among journalists are also held.

Among Marc Jean’s many Calvados-based cocktails, long and short, I’ve selected below, with permission, four recipes from Cocktails au Calvados, a collection of recipes that he co-authored with Dominique Grousseaud. I’ve selected these because they represent a relatively easy introduction to making Calvados-based cocktails with ingredients that you’re likely to have at home. (For more complex concoctions go see Marc Jean at Le Normandy in Deauville.)

You’ll need the calvados, of course.

When traveling in the production zones in Normandy you’ll undoubtedly drive by apple farms that offer a tasting or a visit of their installations. Local tourist offices can provide a list of those that receive visitors. Some of the best are produced in the Pays d’Auge and under that appellation, but there is quality elsewhere as well.

During my own travels in the region, I enjoy the encounter as much as anything. Quality of the calva is often the secondary pleasure but nothing beats meeting a quality producer with a good story to tell.

More than half of calvados production is exported, with the U.S. placing near the top of the list, so you’ll have little trouble finding some at a decent liquor store at home. Calvados is aged in oak vats for a minimum of two years (three years for calvados domfrontais). Long-aged calvados of six years or more may be more difficult to find in ordinary liquor stores at home. Anyway, a young calvados of two or three years of oak aging is more appropriate for most cocktails since they provide the fruity aromas that are often sought. Older brandies can also add their distinctiveness to a cocktail, but personally I’m saving mine for a nightcap.

© 2018, Gary Lee Kraut

Calvados Cocktail Recipes

Here are four pages from Cocktails au Calvados, a collection of recipes by Marc Jean and Dominique Grousseaud, reproduced with permission.

Further information about calvados and hard cider in Normandy can be found on France Revisited in this article and in more detail on the site of IDAC, the Interprofession des Appellations Cidricoles, the association of professionals involved with appellation (hard) cider products, those made from cider apples and perry pears.

For information about cocktail-bar tours and encounters with mixologists in Paris see here.

France Revisited reminds readers to drink responsibly and with moderation.

The post In the Spirit of Normandy: Calvados Cocktails appeared first on France Revisited - Life in Paris, Travel in France.

So I was a bit wary when I saw a jar of “D-Day Honey” for sale this summer at Bernard Lebrec’s apple farm in Englesqueville la Percée, a village between Pointe du Hoc and the American Cemetery.

Had Bernard, whose farm I’d always enjoyed visiting for its authenticity, gone crass commercial? What could honey possibly have to do with D-Day?

A lot, it turns out—far more than those baseball caps, placemats and squirt guns.

First, Bernard reassured me that D-Day was apple blossom honey, made locally by a friend of his.

So I bought a jar. Good stuff. In fact, I thought of writing this piece because I’ve nearly finished my jar of D-Day and, needing another to get me through the honey-in-my-tea days of winter, I found in fine print on the label  the contact information of the beekeeper, Ed Robinson.

Ed is an Irishman living in Cartigny l’Epinay, a village about 12 miles (20 kilometers) south of Omaha Beach. He moved to France eight years ago to learn French and, long interested in military history, soon got a job as a D-Day tour guide. After six years working for others, he created his own touring company, Battle of Normandy Tours.

Like his interest in military history, Ed’s passion for beekeeping began at an early age. He says that he was about five when he developed a fascination with bees and even asked his mother then if he could have a hive. No, she told him, but he could have one when he was ten. And she kept her word!

He soon joined the nearest beekeepers society, about 15 miles (22 km) from home, and little by little learned how to maintain a colony of bees and produce honey. By the time he was a teen he was getting calls from around the village to help remove the bees from their property, and by 15 he was the proud owner of an apiary consisting of five or six hives.

Despite his success with the bees in Ireland he never collected much honey there due to the weather. And when he moved to an apartment in Normandy he left the hives abandoned in a corner of his parents’ property.

Three years ago he bought a house in Catigny l’Epinay with room in the yard for his bees. Returning to Ireland for Christmas that year he packed up his hives and bees, loaded them into his car, brought them to Normandy on the ferry—with their Department of Agriculture clearance papers—and moved them into his and their new home.

For an Irish bee, Normandy is apparently everything you could hope for to produce honey thanks to the relatively mild weather and the presence of so many flowering plants, most notably the apple trees in this area of the department of Calvados. As the stockpile of honey grew so did Ed’s dream of selling it. Since Ed was then creating his own battle zone touring company, it made both personal and business sense to call his product D-Day Honey. He came up with the idea of a label showing a bee driving a tank, and his brother, an artist, created the final design of the machinegun-toting bee on the American tank that now appears on the label.

The jar that I’ve nearly finished is mostly apple blossom honey, but Ed tells me that he also produces honey that comes from other plants, after the apple trees have blossomed. So I’m looking forward to trying that next.

“Beekeeping and honey production are just a hobby for me,” says Ed, now 38, “but one which I have found to be a source of immense enjoyment for most of my teenage and adult life.”

Ed and the bees may have arrived by ferry rather than by warship, but I’m glad to see such an authentic local product play on the D-Day theme.

Furthermore D-Day Honey goes very well with tea in my D-Day mug.

Let the winter honey-in-my-tea season begin!

* * *

Ed Robinson and D-Day Honey: For more about Ed Robinson’s D-Day Honey and his Battle of Normandy Tours see www.BattleofNormandytours.com/honey.html.

Bernard Lebrec: Bernard Lebrec’s apple farm produces juice, cidre, pommeau and Calvados. It’s located at Englesqueville la Percée on the main road between Pointe du Hoc and the American Cemetery. Tel. 02 31 22 70 72. E-mail b.lebrec@wanadoo.fr.

© 2010, Gary Lee Kraut

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In a moment of veteran-like panic I had a flashback to one year ago when a clogged water main broke and my upstairs neighbors failed to realize that their toilet was flushing into my WC. When I went up to tell them, the wife said, “We don’t have a problem,” and the husband said, “See, ” pulling the chain before I could stop him.

I sat up in my moment of panic… and realized that I wasn’t at home but in a hotel room. I was staying in a cozy little family-run hotel in a peaceable village near the D-Day Landing Beaches in Normandy. The water, I saw, was entering through the lintel above the bathroom door, undoubtedly from the shower of the traveler upstairs.

I checked to see that my bag, clothes, and shoes were safe and dry. They were, and so was the bed.

I nodded off to the sound of a slowing drizzle, another hour’s sleep before meeting with travelers to tell them war stories.

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The major apple-growing area in Normandy is situated in and around the department of Calvados, which is the regional sub-division (something like a county) whose beaches were the main staging area for the D-Day Landing of June 6, 1944, and a central battle zone throughout the Invasion of Normandy. (Only Utah Beach, which is situated in the neighboring department of Manche, lies outside Calvados.) Another cluster of orchards is found in the upper part of Normandy, just north of Rouen.

Cidre
All three of the region’s apple-based beverages involve the production of cidre (spelled on this site with re rather than er so as to avoid confusing it with the non-alcoholic cider that we know).

A good cidre begins with the right mix of sweet, sour, and bitter-sweet apples, of which numerous varieties are grown in Normandy. Some cidres use up to two dozen varieties. After the apples are harvested in fall (sometimes into December), they are stored in a dry, well-aired place from several days to several weeks before being pressed. The pulp is then slowly pressed, with the resulting liquid placed in air-tight vats, typically stainless steel, and allowed to ferment naturally over a period of six weeks to three months. It can then be filtered and pasteurized, depending on production methods…. or distilled to make brandy.

Cidre, like Champagne, it can be either brut/dry, which is about 5 percent alcohol, or doux/sweet, which is about 3 percent. I recommend sticking with the brut since bad doux still has taste and goes down easily while good doux is only good for a few sips. And rather than think of cidre in Champagne terms, it’s best thought of as Norman beer, or Norman and Breton beer since Brittany is France’s other major cidre-producing region.

Cidre is an inexpensive drink, with liter bottles sold in stores in Normandy for 2 to 5 euros and in restaurants for 7 to 12 euros. It goes with any thirst that beer would go with, whether on its own or with a meal, but since it goes down easier than beer and has an apple taste it will likely appeal to many non-beer-drinkers and can be fun for the whole family. The whole family? Indeed, without encouraging underage drinking, it’s worth noting that in France you won’t get arrested for giving your kids a few sips, though you could get arrested if you’ve had a few too many sips yourself before driving.

Cidre is the traditional accompaniment for savory buckwheat crepes, traditional regional fare from Normandy and especially Brittany, in which case it is typically served in a bowl called une bolée. Cidre fermier is cidre that has been made on the very farm where the apples were grown.

The French term for the production of cidre and other beverages described here is cidriculture. Though I’ve call these products apple-based, many also contain pear. When pears dominate in the mix poiré or perry is produced. Sweeter than most cidres it is typically served as an aperitif. Those of the appellation Poiré Domfront, produced in an area south of the department of Calvados, around the town of Domfront (see point A on the map), are considered the top of the crop. In producing Calvados, a mix containing at least 30% pears is actually required in the Domfrontais area in order to receive that appellation.

Calvados the brandy

Cidre has been distilled into brandy in Normandy, and specifically this area, since the 16th century. The generic term for apple brand is eau-de-vie de pomme or eau-de-vie de cidre.

In 1789, soon after the revolutionary government began wresting power from the king, the new National Assembly understood the need to divide the country into administrative departments, eventually leading to the creation of the department of Calvados that is our primary aim in this article and in visits to the D-Day Landing Beaches.

By the early 1800s the brandy produced in this area began taking on the name Calvados, that of the department at the heart of the production area. Calvados is one of three famous brandies made in France, the other two being Cognac, which comes from an area north of Bordeaux, and Armagnac, which comes from an area southeast of Bordeaux/west of Toulouse.

Cognac and Armagnac are made by distilling wine, so when the phylloxera bug ravaged French vineyards in the second half of the 19th century, cidre and Calvados production increased significantly. The increase in quality, however, is a more recent phenomenon. At its best Calvados lacks the dryness of Cognac or Armagnac without having the sweetness of a liqueur.

Calvados—affectionately known as calva—is appreciated as an after-dinner drink or digestif and is increasingly promoted for use in cocktails, yet prior to WWII it was probably best known as a way of convivially ending a meal in the form of café-calva, still practiced, whereby a shot of brandy is served at the same time as a shot of espresso. The café and the calva are then either be downed—first the café then the calva—each in its own receptacles or by drinking the café then pouring the calva into the warm coffee cup. The imbibing of a café-calva is to be performed with a sense of pastoral well-being or old chum camaraderie rather than like a student on spring break partying with a tequila chaser. Nevertheless, when ordering a café-calva in a café in Normandy or elsewhere keep your expectations law as to the quality of the calva. A good Calvados is better reserved for a distinct moment after the meal or late in the evening.

Calvados is made by single or double distilling cidre then maturing the liquor in oak casks, hence the amber color. It’s said that making a good Calvados requires losing a lot of Calvados in the process.

After aging, Calvados is more or less 42 percent alcohol. (Pre-war calva was often of a far higher percentage.) There are three appellations for Calvados defined by geography and method of production:
– Calvados Pays d’Auge, which is a double-distilled and produced in Pays d’Auge, a lush, rural area which lie mostly on the eastern side of the department of Calvados and over the border into neighboring departments;
– Calvados Domfrontais, a single-distilled brandy containing at least 30% pear and produced just south of the department of Calvados;
– Calvados (without further specification), typically single-distilled but sometimes double-distilled, which represents about three-quarters of the production of apple brandy in Normandy and is produced throughout much of Lower Normandy and portions of Upper Normandy east and west of Rouen.

Outside of these designated areas or in non-compliance with the specs of the appellation, apple brandy simply bears the label eau-de-vie de cidre.

Depending on the appellation, Calvados must be barrel aged for two or three years before going on sale. (Good ol’ American applejack, by contrast, is traditionally made by freezing hard cider, which allows the alcohol to separate from the rest of the liquid, and then siphoning off the liquor while your brother stands nearby with a rifle in case the police arrive.)

Calvados can be an assembly of productions from various years, in which case the age noted on the bottle indicates the youngest ingredients. E.g. an assembly whose label indicates that it was aged for 10 year may also contain older brand.

Calvados uses many of the same terms as Cognac and Armagnac to indicate the time spent ageing in casks. For Calvados, the following terms are used:
– Fine, Trois étoiles, Trois Pommes, and VS (Very Special) indicate that the brandy has been aged for a minimum of two years;
– Vieux and Réserve for a minimum of three years;
– VO (Very Old), Vieille Réserve, and VSOP (Very Superior Old Pale) for a minimum of four years;
– Hors d’Age, XO, Très Vieille Réserve, Très Vieux, Extra, and Napoleon, for six years or more.

A trou Normand (Norman hole) sometimes appears on fixed-price menus in the region. In olden days it was customary to take a shot of Calvados as a way of burning out room for additional digestion in the middle of a meal, say between two main courses (imagine a 19th-century 7-course meal in honor of a wedding or of a visiting dignitary). If you come across a trou Normand today it’s more likely to be a tumbler of unexceptional Calvados poured over a ball of apple sorbet.

Pommeau

Pommeau de Normandie, a combination of Calvados and cidre (the must), typically in proportions 1 to 2, is produced throughout all the zones where the various Calvados appellations are produced. Served chilled as an aperitif, it contains 17 percent alcohol.

Cidreculture for travelers: stopping for a tasting

Driving throughout the Landing Beach Zone you’ll invariably pass by stone or timbered farm buildings offering tasting (dégustation) and sale (vente) of cidre, Calvados, and pommeau. Feel free to stop unannounced into any of these farms. These are generally very informal places where appointments aren’t necessary (though you may wish to call ahead for those noted below). The worst that can happen is that no one will answer the bell. More typically, you’ll be offered a free tasting, though some might charge a few euros.

Drinking and driving is a non-non in France and can be particularly hazardous on narrow Norman roads, so the driver is content himself with jus de pomme (apple juice), but no harm in picking up a bottle of cidre for a picnic or some Calvados for an evening sip.

Truth be told, apple brandy, as all brandies, may not be your taste. Furthermore, that charming old farmhouse promising a cidre-pommeau-calva tasting may produce some pretty harsh calva. But don’t let that stop you from visiting a cidreculteur since the attraction of this stop isn’t simply the taste or the orchards but the way in which they—and their owners—reveal a part of the life of the region now as they were at the time of WWII and long before.

Meeting some of the smaller producers, irrespective of the quality of their products, can offer an insightful glimpse into the agricultural life of Normandy and, in many cases, the family history that is a part of it. That family history may further provide you with a view of Normandy during the German Occupation and during the Invasion of Normandy, which is, after all, the reason you’ll come exploring in these parts.

Here below are a few suggested producers you can visit, but don’t hesitate to follow your own sense of adventure and make an impromptu call anywhere that promises a dégustation. Local tourist offices also have a list of producers offering tastings and visits.

Between Point du Hoc and the American Cemetery: My own wanderings in the Landing Zone led me some years ago to hazard upon the apple farm of Bernard Lebrec. As with many of the large farmhouses along the coast, that of Mr. Lebrec’s grandfather’s was requisitioned by the Germans during the war. Then, after the landing, they was occupied by the Americans. The American 147th Engineer Combat Battalion made this their headquarters and built an airstrip in the family’s apple orchard in the early days of the Invasion of Normandy. Before moving out in November 1944, the battalion erected in the side yard a monument in memory of its soldiers who died on and soon after D-Day, making it one of the earliest American WWII memorials in France.

Mr. Lebrec’s apples go into the three main apple-based beverages: cidre, pommeau, and brandy. The farm, originally purchased prior to the war by his grandfather, is located in Englesqueville la Percèe along the road between between Pointe du Hoc and the American Cemetery. Bernard Lebrec, tel. 02 31 22 70 72, e-mail b.lebrec@wanadoo.fr.

Others in the area will have their own story and even your own history to tell.

For a tasting that’s easy to find and to include in your itinerary, Ferme de la Sapinière is located just outside of the American Cemetery. Route de Port en Bessin, 14710 Saint Laurent sur Mer. Tel. 02 31 22 40 51.

Just east of Bayeux, Les Vergers de Ducy is an organic producer. 14250 Ducy Sainte Marguerite. Tel 02 31 80 28 65.

Pays d’Auge: Truth be told, the immediate area of the Landing Zone is not home to the best calvados production. A good amount of that comes further inland or from Pays d’Auge, an area located just south of Deauville and the Flowered Coast, to either side of A84, the highway on which you enter the Landing Zone when driving to or from Paris.

One of the larger quality brands is Christian Drouin whose Domaine Coeur de Lion distillery is a few miles off the highway at Coudray Rabut, near Pont l’Evêque (of cheese fame). Christian Drouin took over a farm that his father had purchased in 1960 and has since transformed it into a cidre, pommeau, and calvados producer distributed worldwide. His son Guillaume is now fully involved as the third generation. Though neither Drouin may be present when you stop by and though you may encounter some group tourism here, Coeur de Lion offers an accessible opportunity to visit both old and modern facilities, to understand how these apple-based beverages are produced, to have a thorough tasting, and to purchase, if you like, some quality Calvados Pays d’Auge. Domaine Coeur de Lion, Route de Trouville (RN 177), 14130 Coudray-Rabut. Tel. 02 31 64 30 05, www.coeur-de-lion.com or www.calvados-drouin.com.

If you’d like to lose yourself in the back roads of Pay d’Auge and familiarize yourself with some high quality off-the-beaten track Calvados Pays d’Auge, head a bit further east and several miles south of A84 to La-Lande-St-Leger, where the Camut family has been producing fine Calvados for three generations. Adrien Camut was one of a handful of producers who after WWII set out to give Calvados its letters of noblesse.

Calvados Adrien Camut is non-filtered and produced using the family’s own organic apples in a production of 15,000 bottles per year. Come this way if truly interested in fine Calvados or brandy in general, but be sure call in advance or send an e-mail since visits are for a limited public and by appointment only. Calvados Adrien Camut, Domaine de Sémainville, 27210 La Lande Saint Leger. Tel. 02 32 57 82 01. E-mail calvadosadriencamut@orange.fr.

Further information
For further information on the production of Calvados, pommeau, cidre, and poiré (the pear version of cidre) see the official site of the cidriculture appellations. The site also gives recipes for cocktails using Calvados.

© 2009, Gary Lee Kraut

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The temperate coastal climate of this region, where clouds and rain are rarely far from sight, gives rise to a lush landscape highly suitable for the grazing of milk cows, making this region a major producer of milk, cream, and butter in France and home to famous cheeses—Camembert de Normandie, Livarot, Pont-l’Eveque, and Neufchatel—that are must-tastes for anyone visiting Normandy.

Honoring the region’s dairy-producing heritage, the term à la Normande generally refers to dishes with sauces containing fresh cream and/or butter though it might also refer to the addition of apples, cidre (hard cider), or Calvados (apple brandy). Come expecting dishes with olive oil and other staples of the Mediterranean diet at your own risk.

While the coast naturally offers menus of fish and seafood, inland Normandy thinks more in terms of beef and veal. Locally raised duck, notable the canard de Rouen, also appears on many menus. Add apples or the apple-based beverages cidre and Calvados and you’ve got a meal the makings of a great, hearty meal.

Restaurants serving local fare will be explored in a separate article to be posted this month. For now, setting aside the full meal, this article goes directly to the cheese tray or to a picnic by the beach of ripe cheese and fresh bread. But let’s begin with those cows.

La Vache Normande/The Norman Cow

The traditional cow of the region is the Norman cow, la vache normande, that produces rich, high-quality milk. The Norman is a hearty, hefty race that was developed in the 19th century and whose genealogy was codified in 1883. After World War II the high-producing workaday Holstein took over the landscape, in part to replace the numerous Normans that had been killed during the Invasion of Normandy, in part to hike up production with increasingly industrial farming. However, since the 1990s the Norman has made a comeback. You’ll recognize her by her irregular dark brown robe, a white stomach, and a white face with dark brown or black “glasses,” like that lazing vache in the photo above.

The Four Cheeses

1. Camembert de Normandie
Camembert, among the most famous names in French cheese-making, is said to have originated in Normandy in 1791 on the farm of Marie Harel, when a priest from the Brie region (just east of Paris), having fled here while on the run from the anti-clerical, anti-monarchy revolution then sweeping France, taught her how to transform her usual cheese-making technique so as to make a cheese with a white “crust” or rind à la Brie. The new cheese was initially associated with the village of Camembert and surroundings.

As with the majority of French cheeses, the name of Camembert and the other three major Norman cheeses comes from that of its early village or town of production. The numbers on the map accompanying this article show their location. However, the current production zone may now extend well beyond the place whose name is bears, as is the case with Camembert de Normandie, which may be produced in various zones in Normandy.

Camembert went from being local production sold in the markets of Calvados’s Pays d’Auge area (a fine wandering zone for the truly green traveler) to a wider regional production to a national cheese. That third step came thanks to the arrival of the train, which allowed quick shipment to Paris, the belly of France, and specifically to the belly of Paris, its central food market at Les Halles. In the late 19th century a national reputation didn’t necessarily mean that camembert was eaten throughout France but that the taste-makers in the capital knew about it. For shipping purposes the cheese was contained in round wooden boxes that would become its packaging signature toward the end of the 19th century, a period that also saw the development of large-scale cheese producers in the region.

Camembert truly became a national symbol during WWI when it was included in rations given to soldiers. Due to the needs of the army, camembert production was not limited to Normandy. Therefore, despite attempts to declare camembert an AOC or “controlled appellation of origin” that would allow only those cheeses produced in a specific area of Normandy with the milk of Norman cows to be called camembert, camembert was eventually declared a generic term for this type of cheese.

However, in 1983 “Camembert de Normandie” (as opposed to simply “camembert”) received an AOC designating a raw milk cheese molded by ladle and with a fat content of at least 45 percent, molded in a round shape 10.5-11 centimeters in diameter and produced in specific areas in Normandy. What was formerly known as AOC for cheese is now called AOP, appellation d’origine protégé (protected appellation of origin).

Finding a wooden box that contains a round cheese with camembert’s characteristic white mold isn’t enough. First, look for “Camembert de Normandie” on the box if you want the get intimate with the best of camembert. The majority of Camembert de Normandie producers are located in the southeast corner of Calvados, though several others are found further west in the region. Since the tastiest camemberts are made of raw milk, lait cru is what you should look for if your personal health certificate allows.

Fans of camembert enjoy it at different times in its maturation/riping process, but generally speaking you’ll want the heart be soft enough to slightly but not fully bulge out when cut open. In search of the ideal ripeness you’ll notice that in a cheese shop (fromagerie) the cheese seller (fromager or fromagère) will take off the top of the box to give a squeeze in order to see how ripe it is. Shoppers do the same in the cheese section of supermarkets. When you do open a ripe camembert, don’t be afraid of slight red staining along the side as that’s just due to the ripening.

You’ll also find in Normandy cidre-soaked camembert, whereby the round has been soaked in hard cider during a portion of its maturing process. Camembert mariné au cidre can have a slightly bitter smell to it, and it naturally takes on a slight (or less slight) taste of the cidre, which some people may find aggressive. Since a full round of the cidre-soaked camembert can be overkill, most cheese shops sell halves or even quarters. Love it or leave it, cidre-soaked camembert is worth a taste because it’s as local as you can get in terms of ingredients.

Beware: A camembert that declares itself Fabriqué en Normandie (made in Normandy) without the AOP “Camembert de Normandie,” simply means that the cheese was made in the region of Normandy but, with all due to respect to the region’s cows, that in itself is not the sign of quality. While it’s always nice to eat local products, it’s even nicer to eat excellent local products.

2. Livarot

Livarot, named for a village in the same area of Normandy as the village of Camembert, is another round cow cheese but is stronger and denser than camembert. Whereas camembert, even when strong and ripe, is rich and creamy, Livarot can feel sticky and taste somewhat biting as though someone left it in a cave and forgot about it for a month or more—at least that’s the case with the best of them. Though contemporary tastes have milded it down a bit, a very mild Livarot is of as little interest as a sugar-free chocolate éclair.

Livarot comes strapped with three strips of rush or rush-like paper, like the stripes of a colonel, which is why it also goes by the nickname Le Colonel.

3. Pont-l’Evêque

The grandfather of Norman cheeses, produced in the area around the town of Pont-l’Eveque since the 12th century and already exported to other regions in the 17th century, this is another soft cheese with a brushed or washed rind. It comes in a square, like a paving stone, however you needn’t by the full square as many cheese shops also sell rectangular halves.

Though Pont-l’Eveque can have a strong smell, it’s more mild in taste compared with Livarot and ripe Camembert. At its best there’s an aged richness whereby the smell is pronounced but not overpowering and the taste is smooth, almost sweet.

4. Neufchâtel

Neufchâtel can come in squares or logs but is most commonly produced in its heart-shaped version. It comes from a very localized area around the town of Neufchâtel-en-Bray in Upper Normandy, which is north of the primary zone for the other Norman AOP cheeses and removed from the area covered in the series of Normandy Landing Zone articles on France Revisited. Because its zone is more localized, Neufchâtel has a smaller production than the other three cheeses and is less well known.

Cheese has been made in the Neufchâtel area since the 11th century, which could allow it to claim seniority over Pont-l’Eveque, however the Pont-l’Eveque’s reputation early on has earned it a stronger historical claim. As with Camembert de Normandie, a peach-fuzz of mold can naturally form on the Neufchâtel rind, particularly its raw-milk version. You may wish to remove the rind or not. Inside, the cheese is creamy and smooth and can be tasty both young and properly aged. Though the smell naturally becomes more pronounced with age, it is generally mild compared with Camembert and certainly compared with Livarot.

Preparing a picnic

There’s plenty of industrial cheese around, especially in supermarkets, even if it is made in Normandy, but to know the best of Norman cheeses you should head into a cheese shop where you’ll find more artisanal, and better yet fermier (farm-produced) cheeses. Good restaurants conscientious about their cheese trays are the other place to try them.

Despite a temptation to put these cheeses in the refrigerator they are best left out, particularly if ambient temperature is below 60 degrees. If you do wish to refrigerate, say at night while at a hotel, it’s advisable not to re-refrigerate, not just for health reasons but because it messes up the natural maturing process of the cheese. Though the better cheeses will retain some of their interest with re-refrigeration the more average ones loose what little interest they ever had. Better to keep them out, without overheating them; leave a raw milk cheese in the trunk of the car for 12 hours on a warm day at your own risk.

The wisest and tastiest way to go about preparing your picnic as you travel is to stop by the fromagerie during the day of your picnic and tell the fromager or fromagère (depending on whether the husband or the wife is minding the shop) that the cheese is for consumption that afternoon. If you already have a sense of Norman cheese ripeness you can tell him/her what ripeness you prefer, otherwise let the expert advise. The bread store is probably within a storefront or two of the cheese shop, and also nearby you’ll likely also find some good regional charcuterie (cold-cuts). Tell the charcutier/charcutière (depending on which is having a tryst with the fromager/fromagère) that you want a few slices of something local, then go with the flow.

Ideally you’ll try each of the four Norman AOP cheeses, but if there isn’t enough interest (or aren’t enough mouths) in your travel party to warrant all that for a single picnic then just try one or two per day—or go to a restaurant with a good cheese tray.

Drinks to accompany Norman cheeses

Northwest France, from Brittany to the Belgian border, has no serious vineyards, nevertheless, all four cheeses described above are enhanced with a glass of red.

If you want to be picky and are looking to match the depth of the wine with the strength of the cheese it’s worth nothing that Livarot can be strong enough to overpower many reds; it’s well suited for a bold pinot or something with a bite of “noble rot” to it. Or go local chic by having a glass of Calvados with your Livarot. Also consider beer.

Camembert can be accompanied by a cabernet or a merlot or any grape or combination of grapes growing within 50 miles of Bordeaux or with something relatively full-bodied from the Loire Valley. The Loire Valley vineyards are closer to Normandy than those of Bordeaux, so in the name of local travel I vote for the Loire for the picnic.

Neufchâtel also does well with fruiter wines from the Loire Valley, Beaujolais, or the Rhone Valley.

Pont l’Evêque and Neufchâtel, as the milder of these cheeses, are also well accompanied by a cool glass of cidre.

Water is always an acceptable alternative for all four and obligatory for whoever’s driving after the picnic.

Visiting a cheese production facilities

You may pass by farms with a small shop to purchase their cheese directly for your picnic, and perhaps have the chance to speak with the producer about his or her products. However, for health reasons, small producers can’t give public tours since a special sanitation set-up would be required in order to allow outsiders to witness the cheese-making process.

Graindorge, a semi-industrial (or mixed artisanal-industrial) producer of the major cow cheeses associated with Normandy gives tours in which visitors can observe the process from behind a glass wall. Their production facility is located in the town of Livarot, west of Caen. See www.graindorge.fr for details.

Between Utah and Omaha Beaches, you’ll pass Isigny (number 5 on the accompanying map), a town especially known for its production of butter and cream. As with the cheeses noted above, Beurre d’Isigny and Crème d’Isigny are both recognized appellations. The workshops of the Milk-product Cooperative of Isigny Saint-Mère, a major regional producer of butter, cream, camembert and Pont l’Eveque, can be visited weekdays in July and August during regularly scheduled guided tours, otherwise by appointment from Easter to mid-October. See www.isigny-ste-mere.com for details.

Isigny is also known for its irresistible, damn-the-calories caramels. For information on caramel factory tours, in French only, seewww.caramels-isigny.com. Or simply buy some anywhere in the Landing Zone.

Cheesy websites

Association of producers of Camembert de Normandy AOC: www.camembert-aoc.org
Association of producers of Livarot AOC: www.livarot-aoc.org
Association of producers of Pont-l’Eveque AOC: www.pont-leveque-aoc.org
Association of producers of Neufchatel AOC: www.neufchatel-aoc.org
If focusing on back-road travels in Pays d’Auge you might consult the site routeducidre.free.fr

© 2009, Gary Lee Kraut

The post Must-Tastes of the Normandy Landing Zone: 4 Norman Cheeses appeared first on France Revisited - Life in Paris, Travel in France.

You can seek those rewards in a single day, opt for a more expansive view with an overnight or two, or slow down for three, four, even five days of explorations that will allow you to get intimate with this corner of France. Whatever time you’re willing to devote to visiting the area, you will come away with a greater sense of the significance and events of the Invasion of Normandy and, on more than a daytrip, a sense of the life and history of this part of Normandy (for this is indeed only a part) beyond that period the events of the war.

Having created numerous customized itineraries for Normandy and personally accompanied a wide variety of travelers (WWII vets, sons and daughters of veterans, a Hollywood actress, honeymooners, foodies, adults of all ages, children of all ages, my own family, etc.), travelers who have in turn enriched my own sense of the possibilities in the region , it goes against the grain for me to present generic, one-size-fits all itineraries.

The information and itineraries presented here is therefore not intended to dictate a specific way of visiting the area but rather to give a sense of the logistics and possibilities in and around the Landing Zone.

A D-day daytrip from Paris

A daytrip from Paris requires a 3½-hour drive—about the same for a train+drive—to the Pointe du Hoc/Omaha Beach area of the Landing Zone, so a daytripper typically has about five to seven hours to visit the sights these and other sights. This is true whether on a DIY daytrip or a daytrip with a guide. Of course, a guided tour also provides much information while in transit.

Due to the limited time in Normandy during a daytrip from Paris, any tour therefore focuses on several of the most evocative sights, among them: Pointe du Hoc, the various national cemeteries, in particular the Normandy American Cemetery lying as it does above Omaha Beach, the remnants of the artificial harbor at Arrommanches, and Pegasus Bridge. British travelers naturally want to include a visit to a British cemetery, Canadian visitors a Canadian cemetery and German visitors a German cemetery.

Travelers also often want to catch a glimpse of the Bayeux Tapestry—a magnificent historical “document” about William’s conquest of England in 1066—thereby reducing the time available to visit the WWII sights. Seeing the tapestry takes about 20 minutes, but you need to count an hour between parking, buying tickets and possibly waiting in line to see it.

Despite time constraints, a DIY daytrip is nevertheless well advised to take at least a few minutes here and there to walk around a village, to stop into a local café, to visit a Calvados producer, even to walk on the beach.

The Mémorial de Caen, a major war museum, organizes daytrip excursion that include a visit to the museum. Worthwhile for those with an interest in spending the morning in the museum but less so for those who prefer to devote their limited time to the sites close to the beaches.

The post Advice and Itineraries for Visiting the D-Day Landing Zone of Normandy appeared first on France Revisited - Life in Paris, Travel in France.