Calvados Père Magloire l'Experience — Attraction in Lisieux

A unique and well-organised experience that walks you through the entire process of making calvados. The tour is available in both English and French (make sure to choose the right language when booking online), and you can also book directly on site if needed. Each session can host up to 60 people, so it works well for groups or team outings.

The tour itself is immersive. There’s no live guide. Instead, you move through a series of rooms with videos and wall projections that tell the story step by step. Doors open automatically as the story progresses. You’ll follow the whole journey from apple growing and harvesting, to double distillation and ageing in wooden barrels.

In the end, there’s a guided tasting of 3–4 types of calvados, including VS (Very Special) and XO (Extra Old). This part is hosted by a member of staff who’s both charismatic and knowledgeable. You can ask any questions here, and the team is happy to share more. Most staff members speak multiple languages.

There’s also the option to try non-alcoholic drinks, so even if you don’t drink or you’re visiting with kids you’ll still find it engaging. The whole experience feels a bit like walking through a movie set, and younger visitors will likely enjoy the visuals and storytelling.

Afterwards, you can buy the calvados you liked best to take home. All in all, a great stop for anyone interested in local...

Wow! We were blown away by the presentation here. We wanted to do a Calvados tasting/tour, but we had 9yo Boy in tow, so we didn't want to bore him with 2 hours in a cellar. This was fantastic. We were the only ones on the tour, so we had lots of room and time to take it all in. The interactive aspects of the tour were awesome. Boy loved the little village, the orchard, the apple pile, the apple bath, and the tasting of apple juice at the end went down well, too. Steve was brilliant - he gave us a great shpiel about Magloire and Boulard, and some information about the process, the guidance of the naming of the drinks, and some extra back history. He then ran us through 6 products, tailoring to our tastes somewhat and recommending drinks he thought we should try based on our preferences. He then took us through from the tasting room to the shop and stayed on the till while were in the shop, on hand to answer any questions or help us out in any way. Very comforting to have that, when french isn't your first language. We ended up buying a bottle of Eau de vie de cidre, aged in Woodford reserve casks, which you will struggle to find on sale anywhere else. Boy chose himself a bottle of apple juice, and an apple crafted from a book, as a memento. It was a great experience from...

TLDR: Not a tour but an immersive museum. Good but expensive. Don't buy in the shop! The visit was nice but the entrance fee too high for what it is. Also, don't expect an actual distillery tour, it feels more like a(n immersive) "museum", which is not a bad thing at all, as it is different from every other distillery. You just have to understand you won't see the actual place where calvados is made or the equipment used to make it. You get to taste a few of their products (and not only the basic stuff) at the end. The quantities were small compared to other distilleries but it was enough. As they have different brands, I would have liked to be able to taste a few more as well as receive additional explanations to understand and taste the differences. It was overal a good tasting but could be improved. The main negative point for me was the shop. It looks great but everything is overpriced, you can find the same products for much cheaper in supermarkets or online. In my opinion, it is really bad practice to make people interested enough to come and visit pay a higher price than basically anywhere else (including the online shop of...