The Good Life France Magazine Summer 2018 | Page 22

The Calvados Experience

You can find out all about Calvados at the Calvados Experience, part museum, part show. This brand new experience opened in 2018 at Pont-L’Eveque on the site of France’s oldest and most famous distillery. It’s a celebration of and homage to Calvados and I really don’t want to spoil it by giving too much away but this is a fully immersive “experience” with some awesome special effects. One minute you’ll find yourself in a centuries old Norman town on a misty morning listening to bird song, peeking at a farmer and his rosy cheeked wife picking apples. The next minute you’ll find yourself watching an apple mountain tumble and fill the air with the scent of crushed apples. It’s very artistic and very well done, educational as well as fun, telling the history of Calvados – and it’s quite a story.

The Calvados Experience is great for the whole family and there’s a tasting included in the visit (though not for kids) and a very smart shop selling Calvados and cider products plus a picnic area and a café on site.

calvados-experience.com/en - you can take the tour in eight languages.

Calvados Cocktail Competition

Normandy folk love Calvados so much that each year they hold an International Calvados cocktail competition with a different theme, for instance in 2018 competitors had to include a vegetable element. It’s an event that’s taken seriously with entrants from around the world flying in to participate. They are the winners of best bartender competitions from countries like Russia, UK, Estonia, Sweden, Finland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Italy and Poland as well as of course France. Student bar tenders also take part. And, if you thought Calvados was just for drinking neat with ice, you couldn’t be more wrong, it makes an excellent base for cocktails.