Signature Tour: Pays d'Auge from Deauville

Itinerary

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   This tour takes you to the heart of the Pays d'Auge, a land of rolling countryside renowned for its gourmet traditions and its typical half-timbered architecture. Between cheese and spirit tastings, spiritual contemplation and charming villages, it's an authentic dive into the Normandy art of living. Your tour is led by a driver-guide and former distiller, a specialist in Normandy gastronomy, who shares his passion for the terroir and its traditional know-how throughout the day.

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   The four Normandy cheeses — dairy visit and tasting. The Pays d'Auge is the historic cradle of Normandy's four AOP cheeses: Camembert, Livarot, Pont-l'Évêque and Neufchâtel. During a visit to an artisan dairy, discover the secrets behind these raw-milk cheeses, from traditional ripening to techniques handed down through generations, before a tasting that showcases the full richness of these terroirs.

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   Distillery visit — tasting of apple juice, perry, cider, pommeau and Calvados. An orchard land par excellence, the Pays d'Auge has cultivated its know-how around apples and pears for centuries. Drawing on his experience as a former distiller, your driver-guide walks you through the production stages, from pressing the fruit to distillation in a charentais still and ageing in Calvados AOC oak casks. A tasting lets you sample the full range of Normandy flavours: apple juice, perry, cider, pommeau and Calvados.

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   Basilica of Sainte-Thérèse of Lisieux. Built in the 20th century in tribute to Thérèse Martin, the Lisieux Carmelite canonised in 1925 and now one of the most venerated saints of the Catholic Church, this basilica is today the second place of pilgrimage in France after Lourdes. Its vast mosaics, its crypt and its imposing dome bear witness to the popular devotion inspired by Saint Thérèse's “little way”.

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   Village of Beuvron-en-Auge. Listed among the Most Beautiful Villages of France, Beuvron-en-Auge embodies the emblematic image of the Pays d'Auge with its colourful half-timbered houses set around a picturesque central square, the Halle. This typical village, where craft shops mingle with 16th-century buildings, offers an authentic glimpse of traditional Normandy architecture.