Today we planned a full day which started off by driving to the nearby Cancale peninsula. First we walked right to the end to look at the sea and discovered that Cancale actually has a life boat which was of particular interest to me considering my photo-shoot of the RNLI in Teddington just before we left! After a short walk we headed to the little (and it is little) town of Cancale which is known for one thing and one thing only - oysters.
I had read about this many month ago and had shortlisted two restaurants to try. We parked just out of town as it is near impossible to park down on the harbour and walked the five minutes in. The town is indeed just focussed on oysters with quayside stalls and many restaurants. The sun beat down as we walked up and down. The first place was packed but the second restaurant (which happens to be the number one listing in the town) had plenty of space. What can I say? It was the best ‘fruit de mer’ meal I have ever had. I initially ordered some oysters for us both and what I thought was one plate of shellfish but something must have been lost in translation and two plates turned up. I was in charge of shelling the massive prawns and brown shrimps and Colin proved to be remarkably adept of getting the whelks out of their shells. Oysters - great, prawns - great, shrimps - great, whelks… interesting. I ate three and probably don’t need to eat them again! I think it will be a long time before I order that type of dish as it was so good I wouldn’t want to compare any food to it.
After our feast we still had our next visit of the day to Mont Saint Michel - the French equivalent to St Michaels Mount in Marion near Mum. I had looked at the tides and made sure that we visited at low tide. This is when I became a little disillusioned. After we had park up in one of about ten car parks, we took a bus across to the island. I had expected us to be driving on a causeway but there is actually a raised road above the sand and mud flats. There were hundreds of people there including two acrobats practicing tight rope walking for a later show.
We walked quickly to the island and managed to escape the crowds by walking up to the ramparts - but not before I finally managed to buy stamps for my postcards! The view from the ramparts was very good and the mystery of the island was somewhat restored. Th light improved as the day moved on and we finally decided to come down and although I had contemplated walking back across the raised road, it was very hot so we caught the crowded bus instead and I had to stand up all the way.
We drove back to St Malo but stopped via our favourite hypermarket D l’Clerc for supplies and more topping up of our drinks stores - the car has started to rattle. Despite our seafood lunch, Colin bought and cooked two massive steaks (must have been about 10-11 ounces each). We ate them on our terrace along with a massive apple tart - should have been a couple slices but someone thought it was more cost effective t spend €4 on a complete family size flan - a culinary day today.
