Cidre Bouche by Calvados Mont St Michel – Mrs Lefranc Luc Et Eric #OTTBeerDiary Day 136

This post is a part of the 2015 New Beer Every Day Beer Diary Challenge, #ottbeerdiary.  Over the course of 2015, I will be trying a new beer every day. Please read the background in the link above, and enjoy reading about the most recently tasted beers below. If you’d like to join the challenge as well, let me know in the comments below, and be sure to check out Grown-up Travel Guide and his #grownupbeerdiary, where Andy Higgs came up with the diary format in use below. You can catch up on all of our posts as part of the challenge under the tag ottbeerdiary.

Day 136: May 16, 2015

Diary entry:

Normandy day on our road trip.

I had a few goals in mind today. I wanted to see Mont Saint Michel, I wanted to visit the American Cemetery at Omaha Beach, and if time permitted, I wanted to see one of the German cemeteries as well.

Check. Check. Check!

Started out as a fairly rainy morning for the drive up from Angers to Mont Saint Michel, but by the time we had parked, the rain had stopped and visibility had returned, so we were able to see the castle pretty well even from a few miles away as we approached.

Originally, we intended to visit the La Cambe German war cemetery nearby to the D-Day beaches, but right after leaving Mont Saint Michel, we saw signs for the ossuary at Huisnes-Sur-Mer, so decided to detour there instead.

This left us a little more time for the American WWII Cemetery and Memorial at Omaha Beach, which we hit at just the right time for the lowering of the colors and taps.

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Visited #Normandy and the American WWII Cemetery and Memorial today. Thankfully the morning rain we had at Mont St. Michel had cleared, making way for blue skies, and more warmth as it was freezing along the coast. Even less an hour before closing, it extremely busy this afternoon with #armedforcesday & it being a holiday weekend across parts of Europe. The crowd at the American cemetery was quite a contrast to the German WWII cemetery we visited earlier in the day wherein we saw five other people. Some areas are under renovation, assumably they will be ready for D-Day anniversary on June 6. Impressive monument, yet obviously somber – the cemetery sits above Omaha Beach, which was one of the key landing and battle spots during D-Day. I read that as recent as the late 1980's, they were still finding glass and other bits of ammunition in the sand along the shore.

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Still had not decided on what to do afterwards. Do we make the six-hour push to home? Or was that a bit much?

We decided to take it a little easier on ourselves, and chose to target Amiens, around halfway to home, for our evening break.

The Beer:

Name: Cidre Bouche

Style: Cider

Producer: Calvados Mont St Michel – Mrs Lefranc Luc Et Eric

Alcohol content: 5.0%

Bottle size: 0.75l

Purchased from: La Baraka

After visiting Mont Saint Michel and the German WWII cemetery at Huisnes-Sur-Mer, we decided to stop for a bite of lunch before continuing up to the American Cemetery at Omaha Beach. This little Moules / Frites stand along the side of the highway looked perfect, so we decided to pull in and grab a bite.

Or should a say I giant mound of mussels and fries!

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Today's #ottbeerdiary beer of the day. Cidre Bouche by Mrs. Lefranc Luc Et Eric. Delicious. Locally produced, served alongside a mound of Moules and Frites in Calvados near Mont Saint Michel.

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Was thrilled to see a very local cider on offer, from Calvados Mont Saint Michel, which went perfectly with the moules!

Commercial Description:

Hand-made antique and distilling on the farm over a wood fire.

Our orchards are planted with apple trees tall stems without chemical fertilizers.The Calvados 3 to 35 years of age, aged in oak barrels.