Buttery Brittany
18.10.2024
20 °C
Despite being the scene of many historic battles culminating in the Second World War, this part of France has retained much of its historically significant architecture. Every city, town and village, has streets of centuries-old houses and shops, along with soaring cathedrals and churches dating back a thousand years. We’ve only been in Northwest France for 11 days, but we’ve already visited more fortified medieval chateaux than William the Conqueror conquered. This vast riverside chateau is in Josselin…
We have hundreds of photos of historic Norman and Bretagne buildings, but we promised some flowers. These are the gardens surrounding the medieval walled city of Vannes…
It’s the middle of October but Brittany is still in bloom. However, the damp autumn weather has been welcomed by the fungi. Mushrooms and toadstools are flourishing. These exotic specimens are probably deadly – but very pretty…
There is nothing deadly about the food here, other than the fact that everything is made with unbelievably rich, golden, butter; wine can be bought for as little as 3 dollars a bottle; and there are hundreds of varieties of cheese to choose from. These are all goat cheeses on one stall in the market in Vannes…
…while these are from cows’ milk…
We bought a selection of cheeses and some fabulous butter, then all we needed was a baguette for a delicious lunch. Bakeries, biscuiteries and patisseries all specialise in delicacies loaded with Brittany butter. Along with the world-famous kouign amman that we first discovered in Taipei there are the butter-loaded biscuits, Galettes Bretonnes, and renowned buttery cakes, the Gâteau Breton, for which there are annual awards.
With lunch and afternoon tea easily taken care of we had lots of time to explore the wild Atlantic
coast on the Quiberon Peninsula… 
…before attempting to browse the world’s most overstocked bookstore…
If there is a novel by James Hawkins in here somewhere the owner would never find it.
Now for dinner...Tonight’s menu: breast of guinea fowl topped with langoustines and oyster leaves to start…
(Yes – oyster leaves really do taste like oysters). We followed with breast of duck and filets of john dory with a classic Côtes du Rhône and topped it off with buttery apple and fig tartin accompanied by Brittany ice-cream and whipped Brittany cream…
We are in Quimper: just another delightful Medieval city where traffic has been banished to the suburbs. Now we know why most Brettones are not enormous – they run, walk or cycle everywhere. And it’s time we did the same.
If you have indulged in too many buttery delights, cheese and good meals swing by Quiberon where is the well known Thalassotherapy
Institute.
I am drooling just at looking at the array of goat cheeses. xx
by Christine Lloyd