Food and Drink in Normandy: Diary of a 10-year-old on holiday, in 1992
byASH Smyth
August 2026
ASH Smyth discovers a perfectly-preserved (if slightly smelly) diary from an old school project.
Day 1: Thursday 26th August
We arrived at Neufchâtel at 18:00. We found our hotel and parked the car. We went to enquire about rooms. There were plenty. 'Our hotel' is called the Lion d'Or and is 17-19 Pl Notre Dame, Neufchâtel, Normandy, France.
We went in with our luggage (after going out to get it), took the key to our room and went upstairs.
Supper was served at 18:45. We had a round of drinks beforehand. We chose the fixed menu of 75F per person. I had;
Starter: Oeufs Mayonaisse
Maincourse: Beef tongue
Pudding: cheese (Camembert and Neufchâtel)
Wine: Bourgogne A Ligote
After supper we went out for a walk round the town to look at all the nice closed shops and decide what to buy tomorrow. Tomorrow we will go to a Fromagerie somewhere near Neufchâtel.
Day 2: Friday 27th August
We woke at about 9:05 upon which we washed and dressed. We went downstairs for a breakfast of croissants, french loaf and jam (with, of course, hot chocolate). We then paid our bill and left.
We drove about 80 km until we crossed the Seine on the toll bridge. After we had crossed we drove a few km further until we stopped at Beauzeville, 14 km North-West of Pont l'Eveque. As one might expect we bought some Pont l'Eveque cheese plus some french bread and peaches which we ate en-route. We then drove on further to Lisieux and then to Livarot. We finally reached Saint Pierre sur Dives (our destination) at about 17:20. We then spent about an hour and a half looking for somewhere to stay the night. We found somewhere that was full for the night, but we booked for the next three nights. We eventually found somewhere to stay in Saint Pierre.
We booked in, and, finding that dinner was not for another hour, went off to buy postcards and make some phone calls.
Then we had some supper. Tonight's menu was;
Starter: Melon
Main course: Pork chop + chips
Pudding: cheese (Camembert, Pont l'Eveque, Livarot)
Drinks: 2 Orangina's and 1 cider (Hic!)
It is now 23:10 and we are in our room. The hotel is the Renaissance Hotel.
Bon nuit!
P.S. We tried finding a cheese farm where we could see cheese being made in Neufchâtel but we were a bit late and only saw them moulding the cheese in shapes. I also lost two teeth and Dad (sorry, the tooth fairy) gave me twenty francs.
Day 3: Saturday 28th August
We woke up and dressed by about 9:15 whereupon we went down and seated ourselves for breakfast in the dining room. It was the ordinary fare; croissants, bread, some small caked and hot chocolate or coffee.
We checked out at about 10:00. We went to an épicerie to buy some fresh apricots, some Camembert and some apple juice. We then proceeded to a chemist to look for a comb, talc and a nail file. They had none of these.
We looked at our maps for cidre farms and cheese farms. We decided on cider and chose a farm. We got there just as it was shutting for lunch, but we were very kindly shown round all the same. It was very interesting. We took a few photos and then went into the shop. This particular farm sold cider (cidre bouché), Calvados and a mixture of the two called pommeaux. We bought six bottles of cidre bouché two bottles of Calvados and two bottles of pommeaux.
We were starting to feel peckish so we clambered into the car and, after driving around and not finding a bench or picnic area, we stopped by the roadside to have lunch.
After lunch we drove back to St. Pierre and went to the Museé des Techniques Fromage (or something like that) and spent a great half-hour looking around at the ways in which cheeses used to be made, and buying postcards. Afterwards we went to our nearest poste and bought sixteen stamps of the denomination of two francs and fifty centimes. The stamps were a different self-adhesive type to be bought in squares. We stuck on the stamps and posted the cards. (Yes, we had written on them in between all that.) Jacob said it was lucky that they were sticky stamps otherwise “we would have got sore tongues and wasted 2 hours licking them.”
After all that we wandered about and made a few phone calls and all that lark before we went off to our B+B about 6 km away North. We washed and changed there and then went out to supper.
Tonights menu;
Starter: Salade de tomates
Maincourse: Ham omelette and chips
Piudding: Pears with cream + chocolate sauce
Drinks: Cider + Orangina
Day 4: Sunday 29th August
(The usual repertoire of getting dressed and having breakfast.)
Today we decided to visit the Arromanches World War II Museum on the coast of Normandy. Arromanches was the main British ‘D-Day Attack Area’, and there are still many ‘Mulberry Harbours’ out in the sea. It is strange when one is driving through the beautiful countryside or seeing children playing on beaches which were once littered with bodies and rubble but are now enjoyed so much by tourists from all over the land. The museum is actually called ‘D-Day 6 Juin 1944’. It has many brilliantly formed models one of which has a moving water section to allow people to see how the roads of metal and mulberry harbours rose and sank with the tide. The models are so big that the cases that hold them are about 7 metres l* by 2 metres w** by 50cm d***. Of course at the end was a gift shop were I bought a model tank for 20 F and some model glue for 7 F. That is the first thing I have bought on this holiday.
After we had bought models and posters we went outside for usual lunch of bread and Camembert, to be followed by an ice cream. By the time we had finished our ice creams there was just time to have a quick game of catch on a small but growing piece of beach. When we had arrived in Arromanches the tide had been crashing against the prom. wall. By the time we left there was enough sand to walk out to the battered base of a breakwater that had been half submerged in the morning (it hadn’t actually been half submerged in morning but you know what I mean). It had started to rain so we gathered up all our bags and went.
We arrived back at Madame Renauldon’s gite in View Pont at around 18:00. We got ready to go for supper as quickly as possible. I think it took us about 2 hours to get ready. That must be a record! But anyway, we were at a Creperie by 20:00. After driving around for a while and realising that (after seeing three closed restaurants) on Sunday evening there weren’t likely to be any places open, we were just turning round to go home on an empty stomach, when, we saw a light (literally). Some sceptical readers who know me will say “rubbish,” but we did. The light said
Tonights menu was;
Maincourse: Poppeye Pancake (spinach of course)
Pudding: La Normande (crêpe – flambe’d with Calvados)
Drinks: 2 Orangina’s and 2 sips of cider
It is now 23:33 and time (my Dad thinks) to go to bed. Humph! Not fair!
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*long
**wide
***deep
Day 6: Monday 30th August
We thought that today we might go for a drive through a few towns. (We only got through one because we needed to get back for lunch.) But before that, we needed to go to, a) the bank, b) the epicerie, c) the petrol station, d) the bookshop and e) the tabac.
Here is our list;
Bank: Draw cash
Bookshop: Buy Tintin en Francaise
Epicerie: Tomorrow’s lunch
Tabac: Camera film
Petrol station: Petrol (of course!)
We completed our tasks and then went off to look round the market and buy stamps for my scrap/souvenirs page of my project.
We then went for our drive round the town (Livarot) about 6 km away. There wasn’t much to see.
Everyone was getting rather cold so we decided to go back for lunch. We got back quite quickly and sat in our nice warm room while we ate our lunch. (Bread and cheese as usual.)
After lunch we didn’t really do much except mooch around looking for conkers near the boules area just off the side of the High Street. We found a lot.
The next interesting thing was picking mushrooms and blackberrys in the field next to our B+B. The ratio was about B* 10 to M** 1.
Eventually supper time came (at last). We went back to the case we were in on Saturday.
Tonights meal;
Starter: Chefs salad
Maincourse: steak and chips
Pudding: Camembert
Drinks: Orangina and cider
It is now 22:16 and I am falling asleep to I had better conclude.
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*Berrys
**Mrooms
FIN
