Hi,
Reading through the Normandy Tribunal book, I found a recurring reference to the Apple Mile. As English is not my first language, I don't understand what this refers to... The Mile seems to be a unit of distance, which is not a very satisfactory explanation in this apple context. Can someone tell me with simple words what a Mile or a Apple Mile is?
Thank you
The Apple Mile is simply the name of a a place.
"The covenant is linked to the mortal world at an
orchard, called the Apple Mile, where the
leadership of the covenant is contested."
-- The Lion and the Lily p70
Otherwise, and more generally, a mile is a unit of distance. The exact length has varied over time, but in modern times a mile is 1760 yards, or about 1600 metres.
Thanks ErikT. As i'm translating it to french for my players – and i know translating a name is rather stupid but... – how would you translate this? The Place of Apples?
Le mille des pommes ou le mille des pommiers.
Le lieu aux pommiers.
Technically the lieu is a league, but the double meaning in french thanks to homophony makes it my recommendation.
These are actually two very different words in French:
(Le) lieu (latin: locus) = place
(La) lieue (latin: leuca) = league
Le lieu aux pommiers as no real meaning in French (it's a barbarism). No place is called Le lieu… Such a place would be called La pommeraie.
I know, but they are homophones, it can be la lieue instead, or even better, both used interchangeably Juste calling it pommeraie is too general, whereas apple mile is a specific phrase, rather than apple orchard. The odd name is part of it and helps distinguish it from all the apple orchards in Normandie, as a lieu-dit.
Those are homophones, not homonyms. 
I just said Le lieu aux pommiers is no French. French people never say that (I'm French).
Le Mille-aux-pommiers sounds very nice. Pourquoi pas ?
La Borne-aux-pommiers (Milestone is a Roman invention).
La Bodne-pomiers (Bodne is old French for borne, pomier for pommier).
I am french too, and you are right i did mean homophone.
Thinking anout it calling it la mille pomme or mille pommier also sounds nice.
However, mille (mile) is a homonym for mille (thousand).
Mille pommes (a thousand apples), that makes a lot of compote or cider…
I also though of "Les Mille Pommiers", I think it's the one making the most sense.
Not that much as you might think! It takes around 10 apples to make a litter of cider, and 100 litres aren't that much.
A few years ago I was talking to one asturian guy which made around 1000 litres of cider per year. "That's a lot!", I said. "Meh, just enough for the year", he replied. He said that he used to drink 2 litres per day, one for lunch and one for dinner, and the other 300 litres or so were just enough for a couple of parties with his friends.
He also said that he used to drink three litres per day (breakfast, lunch and dinner) but that the doctor had told him that was a bit too much, and that's why he was only drinking two litres per day 
I would add that cider consumption and production wasn't really a thing in Normandie in the period. The apple press was discovered in the 12th century but it took another 2-4 centuries before it really spread (link in french).
But good going that Asturian.
That's a sad thing to learn 
It's an opportunity for a Covenant in Bretagne or Normandie to make magical press/fermentation items and create themselves a market. Be the economic disruption that the code technically doesn't forbid.
Well, thanks all for your replies. I had also thought to the Lieu aux Pommes as an homophony (Lieue and Lieu), but I finally settled on Les Mille Pommes, as it sounds just like the original and remains consistent with the idea of the orchard.
My group did this with distillation. Our saga is currently in the 14th century, were we are producing distilled beverages for personal (rather than medical) consumption. So some 200~300 years before it became common in historical Europe.
That is not to say distillation was not possible to became common sooner in our history. The ancient Greeks and Romans have documented use of crude distilling back into at least the 1st century. The first documented Western alchemist, “Maria the Jewess,” invented the tribikos (a three armed still) in the 4th century.
Many of our Magi have spend a fair bit of time in the Levant where we have picked up a large number of alchemy text. An Arabic alchemist invented the alembic still (commonly called the "Pot Still" today) in the 8th century. Furthering that are the works of Muhammed ibn Zakaryia Razi in the 9th century (which our Covenant holds most of the text by) who refined the process of distilling alcohol. Combine those text with our Covenant already brewing a large volume of wine and beer, thus deciding to experiment.
It took about 40 years of play time to go through three different tiers: small experimental still, small magic still, and large magical still. Mostly we make forms of brandy, made from a single pass, for consumption. We do make some aqua vitae, but it is primarily for medical and alchemy use.
The point I am trying to make is that having some process become common for a Covenant in your saga several centuries early is a very distinct possibility. You have a group of extremely long lived experimenters with eclectic taste and commonly a fairly large pool of currency. Add to that them having Magic which lets them leapfrog hurdles which would not have been possible in their time.
We already have Magi building self powered land, sea, and air craft. Building climate control and lighting. Industrial farming with magic fertilizer and self powered farm equipment. A fairly modern (if slow) postal system. Fairly modern fresh and waste water systems. If your Magi are willing to use magic then they very likely should be inventing and using things in their area of interest hundreds of years early.
As someone born in Oviedo, Asturias, I can attest for this to be accurate. 
¡A fellow Iberian! That's cool.
Hahaham hello there! Didn't realize you were from here as well!
Also, funny anecdote: I'm running two ArMa Sagas and, in one of them, the players decided to call their Covenant "Ouroboros"...