Travel dream of the week: France’s oyster region

You’ve likely never heard of Cancale and Locmariaquer—they are, after all, only specks on the map, said Susan Spano in the Los Angeles Times. But though these villages in the Brittany region of France are small, no other destinations in the world offer better oysters. Like wine grapes, oysters draw distinct flavors from the ground where they mature, and I first fell in love a decade ago with the flavor of Breton oysters—“husky with the taste of iodine from the ocean floor.” I returned to the region this past spring to fully give myself over to oysters, by consuming them at every breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

It was overcast when I drove into Cancale, which sits at the heart of Mont-St.-Michel Bay. The village was “just as I’d left it, all dour gray stone and suspicious shuttered windows.” There are also churches, shops, and, in the town square, a statue of female oyster workers. The bay, “some shade of gray-green-blue that has not yet been named, is one of the great beauty spots of France,” and has tides that rise and fall as much as 45 feet. It was low tide when I arrived; “exposed were acres of oyster beds, laid out like farm fields.” The port here is full of restaurants, but I opted for an open-air market on the pier, where oysters are displayed on seaweed. I bought the “cheapest dozen I’d ever had,” for about $7. The “ensuing debauchery” left “juice dribbles on my shirt and salty brine on my face and hands.”

One must cross Brittany to reach Locmariaquer. On my drive there the next day, I realized how large the area is, “with inland mountains and moors, orchards, and crossroads marked by weathered stone crucifixes, or calvaires.” I finally reached Locmariaquer, which is on “one of the tidal rivers that shred the ragged Brittany littoral around the Gulf of Morbihan.” The oysters there are smoother than those in Cancale, “but you need to go there to understand.” I spent days “biking around the Locmariaquer peninsula, stopping at oyster farms for free samples.”

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At Manoir des Douets Fleuris in Cancale, doubles start at $108.