Beaumont-en-Auge hangs on a hillside above the Touques valley, and the view over the valley is the first thing you notice. The village is small, only a few hundred people, with a main street of half-timbered houses, a church and a steep lane down to the river, and it has the look of a place that has been admired for a long time. A Benedictine priory once stood here, and some of the older buildings keep traces of it. In the Pays d'Auge, a land of orchards, meadows and cows, it is among the prettiest of its kind.
Its most famous son is Pierre-Simon Laplace, the mathematician and astronomer, born here in 1749 into a farming family. He later became one of the great figures of French science, known for his work on celestial mechanics and probability, and he is said to have been one of Napoleon's examiners. A bust of him stands in the village, and the local school bears his name, a nice reminder that big ideas can start in a small place.
The Normandy cider route comes to a quiet end here, after a day of lanes, farms and tastings. The road down the valley follows the Touques toward Pont-l'Évêque, a cheese town with a long history, and toward the seaside resorts of Trouville and Deauville, with their casinos, racecourses and beaches, about ten kilometres off. The contrast between the orchards and the glamour of the coast is striking, and one can easily ride from one to the other in an hour.
Beaumont has few services, so use Pont-l'Évêque, six kilometres off, for fuel, bakeries and supermarkets, and Trouville for restaurants and a seafood lunch. In spring the hillsides are white with blossom, and the farm shops open for the season, while in autumn the apples are heaped in barns and the smell of fermenting juice drifts out. Be careful on wet roads, since mud from tractors can make the corners slippery, and fog often fills the valley in the early morning. The best way to end is a table outside in the late sun, with a glass of cider and a plate of cheese.