France 2013 - Day 6 - Back in Normandy

Today is going to be another day where I let the photos do most of the talking. We're in Paris now, we've been up late because we got here late, we couldn't find a place to stay for about an hour and a half, and we didn't eat dinner until midnight. Now I've gotta pack and check out of the hotel in about twenty minutes and I couldn't find the cord to connect the camera to the computer until now. Jeez! The stress! We've got about five hours here before we catch the train to London, so it should be nice to have a little bit of down time. Here's what happened yesterday in Normandy.

We arrived at the Camut house two days ago for an evening of food and business. These houses always look straight out of fairy tales. This is their grandfather's old home where the estate is today.

You might remember these two brothers that get along extremely well. Jean Gabriel and Emmanual. Two seriously cool dudes who like to cook meat over fire. This time it was a rack of lamb.

Norman cheese goes with 25 year old Camut Calvados. Remember that when you pick up a bottle.

The next day it was off to find some new producers. We started at Pierre Huet, which is one of the larger distillers in the Pays d'Auge. They've got a serious warehouse. Remember that Calvados is often stored in gigantic barrels to minimize the wood influence.

They work with 30-40 varieties of apple, some grown on bastige and some on hautige plantings (low and high - high is better because the trees take longer to grow and the fruit is ultimately better). They purchase some fruit as well from the town nearby.

After Huet it was on to Hubert which has been taken over by the daughter Astrid. Her property is absolutely gorgeous and her booze is good too!

Astrid is also quite a character and a go-getter. She wants to modernize the package of the bottles and make it more elegant. A feminine style, you might say. "After all, I am a woman!" she exclaimed. We plan on buying a few things from her collection of fine booze.

After Hubert we visited a small farmer named Gerard Perigault. "Mr. Driscoll, did you touch any livestock while you were abroad?" Uhhhhh.......no.

Pierre makes an old and rustic style of Calvados. Very light, very lean, with minimal oak. We thought they were very interesting, but we didn't find anything that fit the bill.

Gotta run! Gotta get my clothes packed!

-David Driscoll