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When most people think of Normandy, they picture apple orchards, manor houses, rolling hills, hedgerows, meadows where brown and white cows graze, timbered farmhouses. This “typical Normandy” is the Pays d’Auge, the rural hinterland to the glamorous Côte Fleurie, and home to cider, Calvados and some of France’s most famous cheeses, including Camembert. It is also home to Ste Thérèse of Lisieux, a long tradition of horse breeding, and a type of rice pudding called teurgoule .

Normandy’s largest regional park spans 2,350 sq km (900 sq miles) of Basse-Normandie and Pays de la Loire, with scenery that ranges from deep forests to gently rolling hills, and from marshlands to meadows. The park aims to preserve rural traditions by promoting local arts and crafts, agriculture, forestry and outdoor activities.

Centred around the River Orne, this region of gentle hills, rocky cliffs, woods and charming villages is hardly reminiscent of Switzerland, but still attracts its share of hikers and tourists. Well placed for exploring, the capital Clécy is also a centre for climbing, canoeing and hang-gliding.

Following the snaking loops (boucles ) of the Seine, this 580 sq km (224 sq mile) park wedged between Rouen and Le Havre was originally known as the Parc Naturel Régional de Brotonne. It embraces forests (notably the Forest of Brotonne), orchards, pastures and the Marais Vernier wetlands. It is also the starting point for the Fruit and Cottage Routes.

South of the striking white cliffs of the Côte d’Albâtre, and bordered by the fertile Seine and Bresle Valleys, this immense chalky plateau provides wonderfully rich soil for arable farmland. You can catch glimpses of the half-timbered buildings and apple orchards of the farmsteads through their massive stone gateways.

As you journey from north to south, the landscape changes from the heavily wooded Eure to the lush, green countryside of the Orne. Spanning both, the Pays d’Ouche is blessed with abundant water. Streams, rivers and lakes make it something of a paradise for anglers.

The wetlands that characterize this park stretch 1,250 sq km (480 sq miles) from Les Veys to Lessay. The eastern marshes are home to many species of migrating birds and small mammals, which can be watched and studied from hides and nature reserves.

Occupying land in the northeast formed by a geological fault known as the boutonnière (buttonhole), Normandy’s least populated area contains the Béthune, Andelle and Epte Rivers, and rich pasture perfect for dairy farming.

Between the Beauce plains and the Pays de Bocage, this 1,820 sq km (700 sq mile) regional park was created in 1998. The high ground is forested; the lower slopes are planted with orchards and hedges. Châteaux and manor houses pepper the landscape.

From the south of Cotentin down to southwest Calvados, this is an intensely rural and unspoiled stretch of countryside, much loved by ramblers – a patchwork of meadows, interrupted only by woods, rivers, picturesque villages and the distinctive network of hedgerows that gives the region its name.