Ma Vie est Belle: day trip.

I love Rennes so much, but I also love taking a day to escape to the coast to a. see the ocean, b. eat good seafood, and c. have a mini break from "the big city." This Saturday my friend Caely and I did exactly that. From metro to train to bus we arrived in Cancale around one in the afternoon. It was a beautiful train ride from Rennes to Saint Malo, and then we hopped a local bus through fields and campgrounds to get to Cancale.

Cancale is a very small town of about 5,000 people that is infamous for their oysters. In fact, according to the most reliable site on the internet, that being Wikipedia, Louis XIV had oysters from Cancale delivered to him in Versailles. If that isn’t class I don’t know what is. With this in mind, Caely and I ventured north on a cloudy day to enjoy relatively warm weather and seaside dining.

Cancale is basically a large boardwalk along the ocean consisting of oyster traps with dozens of crêperies, cute hotels and seafood restaurants. We chose a mom n’ pop looking restaurant where people were squished on small wooden tables and the owners were shucking oysters and picking away seaweed as they shuffled around taking peoples' orders. We settled on a dozen oysters to start and each got moules frites – mussels with fries. The meal was complete with bread and Breton butter and a nice bottle of muscadet. After overstaying our welcome and having a typical two-hour French lunch, we walked the boulevard a bit and marveled at the color of the water. Also, despite the weather we could see Mont Saint Michel, which Caely pointed out looked like a little sandcastle. We grabbed a pastry (or two) in Saint Malo before heading home and arrived home around 6:30. It was such a lovely day trip and even though we just ate and took a walk it was a very successful day - in my opinion.