The landscape of the Normandy countryside is that of the mixed woodland and pasture, with fields and winding country lanes sunken between narrow ridges and thick hedgerows.
During the D-Day Landing, this natural barrier (also known as the bocage) caused heavy casualties and much grief to the allied forces marching inland.
A Mistletoe is a parasitic plant attached to the branches of a tree or a shrub absorbing water and nutrients from its host plant.
Driving the Brittany and Normandy countryside, we frequently encounter mistletoes perched on high trees. My friend Johanna referred to them as the “ball trees”.
I took a picture of this sign because of the mouthwatering sausages depicted there. Later I discovered that they are the Andouille sausages of Vire, traditionally prepared with pork intestines (stomach, small intestine and bowel). The cravings stopped there.
Pays d’Auge is cheese and calvados country.
Situated on the Cider Route, Beuvron-en-Auge is listed as one of the most beautiful villages of France.
Here, you can visit a working farm, enjoy a tasting of local cider or calvados;
and check out colorful half-timbered houses dotting its main drag.
Come springtime, apple blossoms decorate the landscape
sometimes in front of a half-timbered house.
More half-timbered houses can be found in the town of Pont-l’Évêque
Named after its famous square shaped cheese (or vice versa).
Here we stopped by a grocery store, feeling obliged (being that we come from the biggest apple growing region in the US) to study French apple varietals.
And other local specialties such as this selection of duck terrines with calvados or cheese of the region (Camembert, Pont-l’Évêque or Livarot – named after each namesake town in the Pays d’Auge – with the last being the most pungent).
Of course there is the shelf of local ciders and calvados.
Overall, we found Pont-l’Évêque cute and lively.
But our destination lies twenty minutes away in the seaside town of Honfleur.
Until next time…
Travel-Gourmand.com 
What stunning photos. A great trip by all accounts.
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Thank you Sue!
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Stunning pictures.
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Plenty of apples, stinky cheese and gorgeous scenery – what’s not to love about Normandie?
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I love the half-timbered houses, it always makes me think of Alsace when I see them. Likewise, those sausages aren’t so tempting for me – Lyon has a lot of food like that, and I just can’t bring myself to eat them!
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I’d enjoy strolling this town! Beautiful images. 🙂
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Wonderful, Normandy and Brittany are on my list to go back to and explore these regions only.
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Beautiful! Your photos are like a post card.
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Thanks so much Stacy!
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Gorgeous photos. We drove all over here for our honeymoon.
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Thank you for the trip. It is a lovely region. Unfortunately the “Bocage” (And I’ve done many a military manoeuvre there) is mostly gone, due to “reassembling” and restructuring of land. A shame because those hedges were home to many small animals: owls of all kinds in particular.
Be good.
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Fantastic pictures!
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Never knew that about mistletoe. Really bugs me we never made it to Normandy. We spent 9 night in Paris and it was really expensive to take that side trip. We would have but we combined our Paris trip with 3 nights in Iceland and didn’t want to add more to our bill. There’s always next time and I get to learn all these pointers from bloggers like you 🙂
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Thanks jebusandandrea! Iceland is great. If you want to do Normandy, travel off-season, you will get much better deals and who knows, maybe sunny days too 🙂
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We had weirdly warm weather in Paris in February. My friend said that when we were there it was better weather than summer.
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Holy smokes! I am impressed by your travel experiences and your photography skills. You are an inspiration to everyone who could explore the world, but need a kick out the door.
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Thank you Chris for your kind comment. My words cannot do justice to these sights and I hope the photos make up for it. Thank you again for stopping by.
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Thanks for the great write up! We’re heading to Normandy today from Paris and are adding Beuvron-en-Auge to our list because of your pics. Cheers
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I hope you enjoy it! It will be much more beautiful this time of the year 🙂 Thank you for stopping by.
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