Guerande and La Baule - Day 14

First stop, a visit to the salt marches of Guerande. They didn't have a tour available in English, so we went on the French one. We didn't understand a thing, oh well. Inside, they have a shop with all the fleur de sel de Guerande you can buy. We bought a bunch, probably more than we can use. Also inside the shop, an area to read what they do throughout the year to harvest the salt.

We then drove to La Baule. The city seemed pretty dead. Maybe it was the gloomy weather or maybe because most shops were closed because it was lunch time. Lots of stores in these kinds of cities close from 12 to 2 for lunch, except for those places serving lunch.

Salad.

Another sandwich loaded with fries on top.

As we left, I got an almond croissant because I liked the one we had in Arles so much. This one was inferior.

One of the brochures we had advertised a snail farm. Tally-ho.

The snail farm opened a little later, so we killed some time visiting the nearby beach.

The snail farm had a bunch of school kids that just went through. A cute, blond french boy came up to us and I said, "bonjour". He then went on in French. Ummmm...Bonjour.

The snail farm was fun, another highlight of my vacation. They went through the entire process from baby to the plate. Here, they are laying eggs through a Styrofoam square with a hole in it, just small enough so the snail's shell doesn't fall through.

Baby snails.

Big snails.

This place is where they grow until they are big enough to get eaten. They know when they are big enough by the lip of the shell

 

These bags have a bunch of empty snail shells ready to be tossed.

We ate some snails.

For dinner we searched for a restaurant Anthony Bourdain went to on his Brittany show. It was the one where he demanded a seafood tower. It took us a while to find the restaurant.

The restaurant was called Chez Jacky and it was right next to the water.

A bowl of snails of some sort.

Seafood Tower!!! This plate was awesome. I never had seafood this good.

Belon oysters, crab, mussels, clams, shrimps. It was all very good and we ate all of it.