Brittany & Normandy Restaurant Recommendations

I don’t know if you get Bordier butter in Manchester, if you don’t and try to get some in Saint Malo.

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I’m happy to double post an extract of the food sections. The TR is usually very long because it’s a day by day travelogue (luddite’s version of a blog) with touring and eating details. I assume HO is food centric, as was CH, so I’ll provide a link to the full TR in case someone is interested in the touring data.

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I’ll keep an eye out for moussette.

One of our most memorable days was spent taking the ferry from Roscoff to tiny Ile de Batz, about a 20 miute to half hour ride. There are three good creperies on the island plus an interesting hiking trail around the island, The seafood crepe, filled with shrimp, scallops and seaweed was one of my favorite travel/food memories.
Be certain to enjoy your crepe with a Breizh beer or cola.

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Ahh, seconding La Table de Breizh Café (upstairs, above the crepes café) – we fondly recall sitting at the bar watching the Japanese chefs prepare our costy but excellent plates. PS, nearby we stay at and will return to Les Rimains, http://www.maisons-de-bricourt.com/le…, and splurged for the Badienne room – one of the most dramatic rooms we’ve ever experienced – and dined at Olivier Roellinger’s Le Coquillage (the main dish we recall: Lamb from Mont Saint-Michel, for two). Even if you don’t dine there, it’s fun and worthwhile to visit his lovely spice shop in town.

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I remember the splendid dessert trolley that finished off our lunch!!

Just reading your post again, and noticing you mentioned Carnac. Very near there (on the way down to Quiberon): Le Petit Hôtel du Grand Large — one star (self-taught chef), with a very lovely, light and casual feel. Looks to have nice rooms, too.
http://www.lepetithoteldugrandlarge.fr/. From the dining room we watched the tide roll out and strand boats in mud, and enjoyed excellent seafood accompanied by an aged Muscadet. We had fun speaking with the three lively women who ran (and from website, perhaps still do?) the front of the house. We’d happily return.

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Glad to hear that. When we were there, the lovely rooms were more memorable than the food.

I’m hijacking my own post…
Does anyone know where the Concale Sunday market is located? I’ve searched the web but can’t find a location. Parigi said it was one of the top 5 markets in the world (he hasn’t steered me wrong yet) and it fits nicely in to my market schedule.
I usually just drive around until I stumble on the market but the older we get the less patience my copilot has.

Cancale Sunday Market
8.30 a.m. to 2 p.m. from May 1 to September 30
9 a.m. to 1 p.m. from October 1 to April 30

Some construction is going on in Cancale, the Sunday market takes place on avenue Charles de Gaulle, as shown on the map below, during the works.

On the website of the city, it aslo talks about the oyster market.

http://www.ville-cancale.fr/marches.html

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Thanks!!!

Thanks for noting the hotel.

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”).

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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.

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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.

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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!

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