The Story of La Cidreraie, A Family Cider Farm in Normandy

At La Cidreraie in southern Normandy, a family revives ancient orchards, handcrafting natural cider through heritage, intuition, and a devotion to place.

In the rolling greens of southern Normandy you’ll find La Cidreraie, a cider farm rooted as deeply in the region as the apples that define it. Le Perche, a place fiercely loved by locals and largely undiscovered by outsiders, Jeanne Debats and her parents, Michel and Emmanuelle Wielezynski-Debats, are quietly reviving an ancestral craft.

The Debats family has lived in Le Perche for three decades—long enough to fall deeply in love with its landscape and to see the beauty in its quiet. But their entry into cider wasn’t generational; it was instinctual. In 2021, Jeanne proposed the idea. Cider would be a way to embed themselves deeper into their territory: to meet people, to start conversations, to create something communal. 

The old farmhouse was architecturally classic, beautifully worn, and seemed destined for this next chapter. Locals, after all, are born drinking cidre; they carry the taste in their memory like a childhood lullaby. “We knew people would come,” the family says. “Cider brings them home.”

To prepare for this transformation, Emmanuelle returned to school for a rigorous year of cider-making theory and hands-on practicum with neighboring producers. Meanwhile, the family converted crumbling stables and barns into a working cellar, a workshop, and finally a small boutique. They planted 200 new apple trees—each one selected, grafted, and placed with intention.

When Emmanuelle’s American relatives, Stan and Gigi (Owners of La Chatelaine), visited and fell in love with the project, they sent back an unexpected inheritance: a vintage American tractor, older than Emmanuelle but still chugging faithfully across Normandy soil.

Because their newly planted trees are still maturing, the family sources apples from ancient local orchards—an uncommon but region-specific practice. In Le Perche, nature has been spared the industrialization that reshaped so many agricultural landscapes, leaving behind untamed orchards bursting with forgotten varieties. The process feels almost like foraging. Many owners no longer harvest the fruit from their land; instead, they invite La Cidreraie in, asking only for a few bottles in return. It’s an exchange rooted in neighborliness and nostalgia.

“Wandering inside an orchard,” they say, “is one of the greatest moments of our work—fascinating, and a bit secretive,” says Emmanuelle.

They taste from every single tree—some apples bright and sharp, others tender, perfumed, or bitter. Each flavor becomes a clue, a compass for the blends they’ll create. Certain apples insist on becoming something specific: the cider La Chatelaine, for instance, owes its entire personality to one singular variety, the Bouet de Bonnétable.

Everything at La Cidreraie is done by hand—fifteen tons of apples lifted bucket by bucket, tree by tree, into the press. “It takes five percent theory and ninety-five percent courage,” the family says.

The cider is raised in their cellar like wine—slowly, attentively, without shortcuts. It is 100% natural: no sugar, no water, no chemicals, no yeasts, no sulfites. Just apples. Just time. Just the invisible labor of wild fermentation. During crucial weeks, the family can’t leave home; the cider needs them.

Their AOP (Appellation d’Origine Protégée) certification ensures that everything comes exclusively from Perche apples, and also allows them to participate as trained tasters in national competitions. Jeanne even served as a judge at the Salon International de l’Agriculture in Paris—just a few years after pressing her very first harvest.

Four years into their adventure, the Debats family has distilled their discoveries into three simple truths:

Nature is the real conductor.
“The weather, the air pressure, the moon, the invisible yeast floating through the barn—everything conspires to shape the cider. We don’t fight for yield,” they say. “We have no enemies in the orchard.”

Pleasure matters.
Their very first bottle was opened with the kind of fear parents feel before a newborn’s first cry. Would there be bubbles? Would the cider be alive? It was—and it tasted so good that they still remember the exact moment.

People make the work radiant.
Neighbors lend tools. Friends show up to help pick. Visitors arrive from around the world and offer reflections that make the family’s life seem almost dreamlike. Even relatives across the ocean have found ways to participate (tractor included).

La Cidreraie sells most of its bottles locally, though some have now found their way to La Chatelaine in Columbus, Ohio—an anecdote the family recounts with delighted disbelief. Their farm welcomes everyone: curious travelers, architecture lovers, cider enthusiasts seeking something genuine.

With fifty apple varieties in Le Perche alone, the family knows their apprenticeship is still in its early chapters. There is more to learn from the land, more to understand from the apples, more stories to ferment. But one thing is already clear: La Cidreraie isn’t just making cider.  They are reclaiming an art, tending an inheritance, and offering a sip of Normandy that tastes like nature, memory, and courage—bottled by hand.

You can purchase cidre at any La Chatelaine location by the glass or bottle.