Visiting France: Noirmoutier
During our recent vacances en France, we decided to take a little road trip and visit the island of Noirmoutier in the Vendée region. My mother came along and we met with one of my cousins, his wife and little boy, at le Gois on the continent side. I have mentioned this famous submersible road that is le Gois recently on my photography blog. And at that time of the morning, the road was indeed submersed so we drove towards the bridge and made our way to the island. There we were in Noirmoutier!
This lovely island means a lot to me, I spent so many of my childhood holidays there! I stayed with my maternal cousins in a small town called l'Epine at my godmother's family holiday house. So many times were spent going to the beach, cycling around the island and its beautiful salt marshes, sailing, lying on the sand at night time to observe shooting stars and eating a lot of fish and seafood. If the weather was miserable, a good dozen of us would sit around the huge communal table near the fireplace and eat galettes, crepes and other wonders while sipping hot chocolates.
This time, I was showing the island to my cousin, his little family and E. . Our first stop was the lovely and somewhat quite vintagey Plage des Dames.
La Plage des Dames is located in Bois de la Chaize, a very popular area filled with fancy houses. The beach is usually quite busy during Summer time so we were lucky to visit it when the school holidays were very near their end, which means it was quieter.
I love going there during colder months and stand in the wind on the sand near the quaint white beach huts while observing the fishermen on the tall jetty.
But the mood of Plage des Dames that day was a complete surprise to me! The whole little beach and its beautiful hôtel Beau-Rivage had been redecorated for the filming of 'Les Vacances du Petit Nicolas', the sequel to 'Le Petit Nicolas'. Le Petit Nicolas happens to be my favourite childhood book (and it is translated in English!). Suddenly, the scenery I had imagined as a child was happening before my very eyes! Everything had been painted yellow and turquoise, and old style French signs were displayed here and there. The world of Sempé and Goscinny translated in real life, it was magical!
After quite a bit of daydreaming (mostly for me) and as we were getting quite hungry, we made our way towards L'Herbaudière for some lunch.
L'Herbaudière is a little harbour town in the northern part of the island. You can find some lovely restaurants there, including the famous two Michelin stars restaurant La Marine . However, our plan for the day did not include Michelin star dining. Instead, I spotted a crepes restaurant I was already familiar with: le Crêp' Chignon. My memory of having eaten some delicious galettes (savoury buckwheat crepes) and crepes there as a child did not fail me.
I started with a very tasty galette covered with a fondue of leeks and perfectly cooked scallops. As my mother's plate was really close to my hand and fork, I felt the need to help her finish the lovely galette she had chosen... ahem. Just to get an idea of the choice you can get there you know. Yes, any excuse really!
Hers was called a Noirmouflette. Now, imagine a tartiflette made with local ingredients, then stuffed in a galette. You do understand why it was essential for me to taste it, right?
And what is the point of a meal at a crêperie if you do not have a crepe for dessert! The crepe with banana slices and hot dark chocolate sauce was definitely a big favourite at our table, and E.'s choice of a crepe with rich salted caramel sauce was really good too.
We took a little walk along the harbour afterwards to digest a bit and then headed out inland to visit one of Noirmoutier's famous salt marshes. And this visit will be the subject of a next story on the blog!