fête à fête

While staying in Paris, we had the most fortunate luck to visit friends living in the gorgeous Île d'Oléron. The TGV is only three hours away, so it was literally a hop and a skip down to beautiful La Rochelle. From there it's about an hour's drive to the island.

At the oyster farm.

The day before, we were keeling over from eating the best langoustines and crevettes ever for lunch (prepared by Anne's loving hands). The seafood ecstasy was extended further into the next day.

Oyster planks covered by algae to keep them insulated during high tide.

That morning we got to go on a special fishing expedition with Papi Guy. We saw lightning flashing across the horizon earlier that morning, but fortunately it cleared up by the time we neared the oyster beds.

Papi Guy looking for oysters.

We had to wait til the tide was low enough to disembark. Then we got down and raked for Palourde clams and cockles while Papi Guy hunted for wild oysters. It was such great fun roaming around the rows of oysters, digging for clams with our fingers.

Our bountiful harvesting of cockles...

At lunch, we got to try the amazing clams and delicately sweet cockles. The wild oysters were so briny it was like tasting the ocean. Papi Guy then shared his precious stash of home made Pineau, the local aperitif made of grape must and Cognac. As we all did drink a substantial amount, I'm quite happy to see the alcohol didn't make anyone too tipsy...otherwise we'd all have to swim home!

Eating lunch and oysters while waiting for the tide to return.