After all the rain today is fine so we head off to follow parts of the 'Route de Cidre' or cider route. Some of the route follows the white [unclassified] roads on the map, and although we've taken Mary*Lou along a good number of 'white roads' in the past prudence tells us that on a Sunday after a public holiday we would be wiser sticking to roads more suited to a 2.4m wide vehicle.

The route loops through the Pays d'Auge, an area our guide book describes as 'so idyllically pretty it almost seems unreal…' and we can expect '...timbered farms and tree lined lanes whose great natural abundance produces some of the finest cheeses and cidres in France'.

Soon after we clear Honfleur we are in the tree lined lanes. They may be 'yellow' roads on the map but they are still quite narrow and steeply cambered which means extra caution to keep the roofline out of the hedges and foliage. But traffic is light, progress is unhurried and it is very attractive.

Our first town is Pont l'Eveque, a town with its own cheese. Today is the end of a 3 day cheese festival and it is very busy. The road is closed briefly for a parade of people, many in red coats, to march through the town. There is no chance of parking even though it's quite attractive, but our journey through is at walking pace so we see plenty.

We leave on more leafy lanes, climbing and winding into Beaumont en Auge where we can park. There is a large church, lots of timbered houses and a shop selling boiled sweetie necklaces Ali remembers as a child. There is also a boulangerie where Ali buys some bread of the local style, cooked in a wood fired oven until just charing at the edges. When we have it for lunch later it is really lovely bread; thick smoky crust with soft white insides.

After a bit of main road a couple miles of narrow road among thick trees brings us to Beuvron en Auge where there is a camperstop which is not in our books. We decide to park here and spend a while or even the night here.

A short walk back to town leads to the main square, where everything appears too good to be true. The square is decorated with wooden flower boxes, coloured purple and yellow with pansies. Iron lamp standards bearing the red and yellow crest of the region are topped with siny copper lanterns glinting in the sun. And all around are colourful timber framed buildings, so beautifully painted and with olde worlde calligraphy lettering, all so perfect it's like being at a historic museum town.

An alleyway leads to Ferme Gerard Desvoye. In the yard are barrels, a stone-wheeled press and other apple apparatus. We enter the farm shop and are invited to taste some of the cidres. Our guide book describes him as one of the best small cidre makers. Well, he's a normal sized fellow, but they're right about his ciders. Despite their prestige, in a town attracting tourism, at €3.50 a bottle you can't go wrong. We also get some compote and preserves.

On the other side of the square a timber framed tunnel leads to the courtyard of Aux Trois Damoiselles. Set in a timber framed suntrap are the tables and chairs of a bar specialising in apple based beverages. We choose artisan cidres a sip them while listening to some of the best blues and jazz music we could wish for. When we ask the waitress about is she tells us it is internet Radio Suisse.

Mellowed and refreshed we wander a bit more, enchanted by the beauty of this unexpected stop. Back at the van we sit outside and marvel that some of our best places have come about simply because we don't have a rigid itinerary.

An Auge-mented day.