Monday, August 15, 2011

Saint Martin de Ré - Ile de Ré, France

I just spent a fab few days with my sis on the Ile de  in France.  Needless to say we ate and drank extremely well and thought I'd share some of my foodie finds with you.

 Ile de Ré has a number of small towns and villages on it, including the main town of Saint Martin.  The favoured way to get around the island is by bike but, as the weather was a bit dodgy, we took the bus.

We soon came across the La Martiniere ice cream stand on the harbour front.  They sell over 50 flavours of ice cream and sorbet, with flavours ranging from the pedestrian to the downright bizarre.  We were actually brave enough to try the oyster and caviar flavour, which was surprisingly good - creamy and salty.

Whilst wandering the narrow shop-lined streets that lead up from the harbour we came across L'Atelier, which it turned out also belonged to La Martiniere.  L'Atelier sold some of the most beautiful little cakes I've ever seen - including the sushi cake below.  We sampled some of the macaron glaces (ice cream filled macarons).  The caramel fleur de sel, was particularly outstanding.

As far as I can tell, the only other La Martiniere outlet is in La Flotte, a smaller town on the island.  I want to go back to Ile de Re for a number of reasons, not least of which is those ice cream macarons!




saint-martin-harbour
The harbour

la-martiniere-ile-de-re
Over 50 flavours... where to start?!

Puts Greggs to shame...

la-martiniere-macarons
One of each please

ice-cream-macarons
Ice cream filled macarons

sushi-cake
The sushi cakes were my fave



5 comments:

  1. The photos of the habour remind me a bit of Honfleur- we stopped in there on our honeymoon, but never made it down as far as Ile de Re. Looks lovely- think we may have to rectify that.

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  2. Ooh Honfleur looks lovely. I'm keen to see more of France, so will add that to the list (Champagen region currently no.1). c

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  3. Hi Grace

    Lovely to meet you too! Hope you enjoy the final class. I've got another couple of posts on Ile de Re to come, so hopefully some more good recommendations for you.c

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  4. What absolutely gorgeous photos! Great blog. I want to try your mushroom recipe asap! x

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  5. :) Food certainly is a Top reason for coming to the island. Nice collection of photographs as well. Did you actually go in august or was it in july? when weather was indeed a bit dodgy this year.

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Thanks very much for stopping by. Always love to hear your comments. c