France: Cancale – Oyster Overload

Cancale is gotta be the oyster capital of the world, from medieval times to today. The oyster beds are located just in front of the town’s promenade and high tidal swings assure perfect conditions for oyster cultivation, 25,000 tons of oysters per year! In fact, Henri IV, Louis XIV, Marie Antoinette and Napoleon all insisted on oysters exclusively from Cancale. Oysters are rated by size from 5 to 0, 0 being humongous 15-year old and older ones. Tsarskiye are special long oysters, there are also local Cancale also has local round oysters that are flat and are extinct pretty much anywhere else but here. The cultivated oysters are actually Pacific oysters. Dozen and dozen of seafood restaurants line up the promenade and let you sample any sizes/types you want, plus welks, muscles, crab, langoustine, lobster – you name it! But the best are the oyster stalls right in front of the oyster beds – tractors bring fresh oysters here, you can buy a dozen for 10 euro, get them shacked right in front of you and eat them while sitting on the town wall in view of the oyster beds and the distant Mont St Michel!