A Whirl Around Brittany With Some Wine Buying As Well
Tuesday 01 October 2013
FOR many years now, we have taken ourselves off to France for an autumnal break. It's a lovely time to travel, being still generally warm, and it is also a great opportunity to stock up the wine cellar for the long winter ahead.
We find that what we save on the wine prices, which are startlingly cheap to our eyes, goes a long way towards our travel costs. Over the years we have stayed in very many of the hotels and auberges around Brittany and Normandy, so we know the area very well and what the hotels and auberges have to offer.
People ask me frequently about driving in France, and the answer is that it is very easy. Arriving and departing from Roscoff is particularly straightforward. As soon as you drive out the gates of the port, you are on long straight roads through fields of artichokes, which is enchanting in itself. Cherbourg is a much bigger port but once out of its environs, you are also straight out into the middle of the countryside.
I am always a last-minute person, and this year was no different, as we only booked two days in advance. It's the same when it comes to accommodation, but it is important to secure your bed for your last night in France as hotels close to the ports get booked out smartly. This year we decided that we were not going to drive very far and, as we arrived in Roscoff, concentrated solely on a 50-mile radius. If you are only going on a short hop, you can get everything you want, and the French experience, without exhausting yourself behind the wheel.
Perros-Guirec is on the Cotes-d'Armor and only 45 miles from Roscoff. It is a smart seaside town in what is otherwise a fairly rural area. With a lovely old church at its centre, it has a number of particularly attractive home and interior shops including NOX (www.noxdeco.com) which always leaves me wanting everything in the store. At the heart of this little square, Place Eglise, is Pecherie Perrosienne (www.pecherie-perrosienne.fr) which seems to have a permanent queue at its doors for its wonderful array of shellfish and here you can pick up your own plateau de fruits de mer, at a fraction of the price of restaurants, take it down to the water's edge and enjoy those prawns at your leisure.
Also here is the beautiful little specialist shop, Epicerie Fine, and, across the road from it, Restaurant La Cremaillere (ph 02 96 23 22 08) where on a previous occasion we had a very good traditional lunch. This year we had a super lunch at a seafood restaurant down at the port, La Maree (ph 02 96 23 34 13) on Rue Anatole le Braz, where we had the special of the day, an absolutely delicious Navarin de Homard at €24.
There are a number of good hotels in Perros-Guirec, including the very cool zen-themed five-star L'Agapa, which has a Michelin-starred restaurant, La Belouga. If you are not on a tight budget it is well worth visiting but, if you are staying, make sure you have a room facing the water. We stayed there last year but our room faced the garden and we found it very warm. (www.lagapa.com)
This year too we decided to stay for a couple of nights close to Perros-Guirec, but not in the town itself. We chose instead Ti Al Lannec, a wonderful former Edwardian seaside mansion perched on the cliffs overlooking the water at Treburden. Owned by the Jouanny family, who are ever present and attentive, this is a high-end hotel which is a member of the Relais de Silence group. The setting is stunning and the sea a wonderful emerald hue. Filled with antiques, there are many salons and terraces to which you can escape. The restaurant is excellent and there is a sense of occasion about the service and dining but without any pretentious nonsense. Brendan had wonderful oysters to start on each night, whilst I had smoked duck and artichoke salad, followed by 'aiguillettes de rable de lapereau aux pruneaux, epaule confite et chou braise au lard' and Coeur de filet de boeuf, condiment d'echalotes a l'orange, palet Parmentier aux amandes' for himself. Look out for barman Jean Yves who was delighted with the fact that we were Irish, telling us that he lived and worked in Baltimore, Co Cork, many years ago at the legendary Chez Youen restaurant. (www.tiallannec.com)
Next night we headed to Carantec, 11 miles from Roscoff, which is another pretty little town. Again, there is a Michelin-starred restaurant here, Restaurant Patrick Jeffroy at l'Hotel de Carantec. The food is undoubtedly good, the accommodation is expensive, particularly if you want to be on a lower level with a terrace. We couldn't afford that option on our previous visit and were on a higher floor, which I didn't like. However, if you want to experience two-star Michelin dining, the view over Morlaix Bay is stunning! (www.hoteldecarantec.com)
We stayed instead in the new budget priced Hotel de La Baie de Morlaix. Set in an old stone building, the rooms are pristine and very modern. We had a superior double room at €87 which, in fact, had a little sitting room with a sofa bed. The owners were charming and welcoming, and the breakfast buffet offered everything you would expect of the 'continental' breakfast. With a large public car park across the street, there is no problem with your car. (www.hotel-baiedemorlaix.com)
We dined at L'Abri du Pecheur (ph 02 98 67 96 32) down at the port which is a popular and very friendly spot and where the young French girl waiting on tables told us she had been to Youghal! We had a set menu at €22.50 kicking off with Coquille Saint Jacques for myself and a half dozen oysters and winkles for Brendan. We both had raie with capers to follow and finished up with creme brulee and a pineapple tartare and coconut sorbet.
Next day we drove down to Morlaix, which is only about 10 miles away, where we like to shop. It is an interesting town dominated by a huge viaduct and has lots of shops behind the Town Hall, and some nice little restaurants. It was interesting to learn on this visit that the retail trade in the area has suffered just as here with a lot of boutiques, furniture stores and other shops having closed since last year.
On short hops like this, we don't have time to visit vineyards for wine tastings and so on. We buy most of our wine at Geant Supermarket at St Martin des Champs, on the Roscoff side of Morlaix. It always has a huge range at good prices and, importantly, always has loose cartons available to fill as well as wines already boxed. We noticed a brasserie pizza place, La Flambee, (ph 02 98 88 32 65) we hadn't seen before and decided to fortify ourselves with lunch before we shopped. Monsieur was all beer and business ascertaining whether we were French or English. "Irish, even better," he said, as he dashed off fussing around. We were sitting in a row of tables for two which cleared out just as our main courses arrived. The tables were wiped and swiped to within an inch of their lives, straightened, reset and checked, lest they be a centimetre out of place. Then, as Brendan was raising his fork with a piece of duck confit attached, Monsieur whisked up beside us and moved the table two inches to the left as we sat there with our mouths open. Satisfied, he said not a word and dashed off again!
For the next couple of nights of our stay, we returned to Roscoff to the Best Western Talabardon Hotel (www.talabardon.fr). This is a family-run hotel of four generations, well located in the centre of Roscoff. We like the fact that it has rooms with balconies overlooking the waters of Roscoff Harbour and a very good restaurant. Our room here was €142 per night with breakfast extra at €12 per person. It is very nicely located in the historic centre of the town but if you want a more reasonably priced option, the newly renovated Ibis Roscoff is just a couple of doors away in another historic building offering double rooms from just €65 for a town view, or €75 for a sea view. Breakfast is €9.50. (www.ibis.com)
We had lunch in two of the restaurants in Roscoff, one which had been recommended as the best in the area, L'Ecume des Jours (ph 02 98 61 22 83) on the seafront at Quai d'Auxerre. Set in a pretty turreted house, the food was good but the service somewhat chaotic with a couple of young and unsure boys serving at tables. However, the two-course 'formula' at €21 offered an amuse bouche of gazpacho and a shellfish mousse, both very tasty. My starter too was excellent, queen scallops and smoked duck, 'frites panees' and a tartare sauce, whilst Brendan had wok fried squid, shellfish and chorizo. We both followed up with delicious robust pink sliced duck breast, served with polenta, beans and a skewer of roast potatoes.
Our second lunch was at a Vietnamese Chinese Thai restaurant called La Baie D'Halong which offered a very attractive lunch menu served on the one platter at €9.50. Brendan had three spring rolls, a shredded salad topped with nuts and coriander, a good bowl of a sweet sour flavoured chicken satay, rice and dipping sauce. I had a sweet sour soup with shrimps at €6 and scallops sauteed with Thai basil and green peppercorns – there's an interesting combination – for €10.50. (www.restaurant-roscoff.fr)
Bonne chance.
First Published in the Sunday Independent