I’m not sure what Parigi was comparing the marché dominical Cancale with. It’s very good but, for the quality and variety, it can’t compare with the Marché des Lices in Rennes or even some other markets on your route i.e. Carnac and Lorient (marché hebdo + excellent, almost daily, covered market Les Halles de Merville).
And many of the same vendors in Cancale are also found at the very similar Wed + Sat market on place Martray in nearby Saint-Brieuc (silent “c”).
Any recent recommendations in/near bayeux and mont st. Michel? I’ll be doing the tourist thing in a couple of weeks, and would love some nice meals near the various attractions if possible (I expect that most restaurants at/near MSM are not the best).
Thanks. We won’t be able to go to a market in Carnac or Lorient; we’re spending 2 nights in a hotel in Carnac between the 1st and 2nd gite and the days don’t work.
However, your post provided a solution to one of my planning disappointments. We planned to visit the U-boat pens in Brest but I just discovered that they’re not open for visits in May. However, when I looked up Lorient to see where it was I discovered that they have pens there that one can visit and it’s en route from our gite to Carnac.
My recommendations above are pre-covid, but I checked and the places are still open and highly rated in Tripadvisor.
We didn’t eat on MSM. We toured and left to eat back on the mainland. I forget where.
Just to prepare you for Lorient. Like Brest, Lorient was nearly obliterated by Allied bombing in WWII and the re-build created a bit of a hodgepodge and very little of the typical Breton cutesiness. On the plus side, it’s a university town and has a certain youthfulness and liveliness unusual in Bretagne.
Bordier butter is indeed very good but lots of marchés hebdos in Bretagne (and Normandie) have butter straight from the farm that can be even better.
It will be a brief visit of the U Boat pens either on our own, if permitted (awaiting a reply to my email), or on a tour. The tour is only available in French so we won’t understand much of it but if it’s the only way to see them we’ll do it.
We will be either stopping in Lorient on our way to our hotel in Carnac (if we decide to chance our luggage in the trunk) or double back after checking into the hotel. We’re leaning towards doubling back.
I plan to buy a different butter at every opportunity. It’s hard to beat great bread and butter.
Please know and remember that regional supermarkets are a treasure-trove of local products. Packaged, bottled, jarred AND also quite excellent dairy and cold case items. Lots of sleeper local butters at Carrefour, SuperU, Intermarché, Monoprix. Bon Appetit!
Thanks- I’ve got those on my list!
I did go for 1 tourist trap in my visit of Mont Saint Michel in 2015, lunch at l’Auberge La Mère Poulard. I knew it beforehand and was prepared. The lunch turned out okay, quite expensive for 2 omelettes souflées for each of us: main course and dessert, but I treated that as part of the Mont Saint Michel experience. And since Mère Poulard is a legend and many chef respected her.
Some serious restaurants owners told me that they have been seriously considering opening restaurants on MSM, but worried that the reputation in MSM would hurt more than the monetary return they gain.
It’s a better bet you go to the nearby cities like Saint Malo or Cancale for a good meal, if time is allowing it.
We found excellent service and savory crepes at La Cloche, an unlikely room over a shop near the bottom of the Grand Rue. No theater but good and well priced food and drink.
While it’s hard to find bad butter in Brittany and Normandy, the best we have found, and also the most difficult to access, is Le Ponclet €30/500 gr. Most of its product is sold directly to fine restaurants. But their story is good and asking for a visit worthwhile.
While no one mentioned my current Brittany favorite.
Le Taupiniere, just 20 minutes outside of Pont Aven.
Their langoustines are the reason l go to Brittany, ok many other reasons, so often. The place is virtually unchanged since first visit three decades ago. While in Cancale Roellinger new place is OK, his Michelin starred place, now closed, was perhaps my nicest night in France.
Stayed at Les Rimains, his family home, still open, and was chauffeured to the ***, a true wow.
Echo your praise for Roellinger and Les Rimains. And am so happy to have Pont Aven mentioned. Certainly for La Taupiniere, but also magical town (once the day-trippers go home at sundown). The joyful sound or rushing waters meets you at every corner due to the many mill streams that cut through town. The fine arts museum is a must see for its major collection of the Pont Aven School of art’s Nabis.
Just remembered a magical address in eastern Brittany, La Mare aux Oiseaux It is just north of Saint Nazaire in the Regional Marais. A very restful hotel, but also lovely lunch stop.
Second Pont Aven and it’s lovely museum.
Other dining recommendations: Le Grand Hôtel du Grand Large in Quiberon and Chez Jacky at Riec-sur-Belon not far from Pont Aven. Both for lunch, but I can’t imagine dinner wouldn’t be great if they’re open.
Just a follow up- while in Bayeux I had one meal at Le Pommier. Food was quite good (straightforward presentation and fairly classic offerings) and very reasonably priced. We had a second meal at L’Angle St. Laurent which was excellent- well cooked, interesting flavor combinations, and also well priced. I’d happily return to either, but L’Angle is a step above.
For lunch one day we stopped at Maniore de L’Acherie between bayeux and MSM. Food was solid but not very exciting, but the price was outstanding (20e for plat+dessert).
Quite true. Bordier used to be an artisan product but no longer is. The fabrication has been taken over by industrial Laiterie Triballat some years ago. It is still good, but even supermarkets in Brittany carry a few brands or artisan butter, generally organic, that are even better. And needless to say, a few steps in any village or town market and you will find at least two or three farmers selling their own butter, and I don’t need to describe how good they will be.
Now for restaurants and kouign-amann.
Kouign-amann first. There are two types of kouign-amann, the Douarnenez version (pie-like) and the Abers version from Northwestern Finistère, very flat and baked in large trays. As it goes, people from the Abers tend to claim that theirs is the best but I hope there aren’t any of them reading this right now for I’m likely to be bombed with raw cauliflowers through my windows. To tell the truth, I find it rather dull and sugary. The Douarnenez version has now been imitated by boulangers throughout Brittany and is generally very good. Now there are two families within this one: the traditional version, based on bread dough, and the more recent version based on croissant dough, created (so I’ve heard) by a boulanger in La Forêt-Fouesnant. They look somewhat alike but they’re very different in crispiness, the croissant-based one being lighter and less chewy. I can’t tell which is my favorite, both are delicious. It is also the only dough base that gives good results with the roll-up-and-cut-then bake “kouignette” version, while the bread-based version is jut not fit for this treatment.
Wherever you are in Brittany, and even in Paris since Georges Larnicol makes excellent traditional KA, look for the shiny surface. If the surface isn’t shiny, chances are that the KA won’t be great. The surface should be like a skating rink of buttery caramel. BTW Larnicol’s kouignettes never were my thing but his regular-sized KA are very decent.
Thanks for mentioning the 2 types. I had the Abers Finestère-type first, and that’s the dragon I’ve been chasing since 2008.
I haven’t had the other type you describe, in France.
Nothing has come close in Toronto, Montreal or NYC.
