Beech trees are the point. The forest of Lyons, a few kilometres from the village, is one of the largest and finest beech woods in Europe, about ten thousand hectares of tall, silver-trunked trees that stand in cathedral rows, and in spring, when the leaves are just out, the light under them is green and gold. In autumn it turns copper. The roads that cross it are some of the best in Normandy for easy riding, with long, smooth curves, a good surface and little traffic, and the sense of riding through a vast, quiet hall is hard to beat.
The village of Lyons-la-Forêt sits in a clearing at about 150 metres, and it is one of the prettiest in Normandy, with half-timbered houses, brick and flint walls and an old covered market hall dating from the eighteenth century, in the middle of the square. The film director Claude Chabrol used it as the setting for his Madame Bovary in 1991, because it looks so much like the Normandy of Flaubert's novel. A few kilometres away, the abbey of Mortemer, with its ruins and small museum, is a quiet place to stop. The village is listed among the most beautiful in France, and in summer and on fine weekends it fills with visitors from Paris, so it is better on a weekday.
Lunch here is a pleasure. Normandy is dairy country, and the food is rich: Neufchâtel cheese, a soft, white-rinded cheese in a heart shape, cream sauces, apple tart and cider or the apple brandy called Calvados. Restaurants and tea rooms around the square serve lunch until about two, and you should book on Sundays.
The forest is also home to deer and wild boar, so be careful at dusk, and in wet weather the leaves can make bends slippery. The nights are cool and the air smells of damp wood. It is a very good place to turn for home.