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| La Tremblade in the Charente Maritime, SW France |
Friday 8th July 2011 ~ Warrington Walking Day, Cheshire, England
8 Juillet 2011 ~ St Thibaut
Last night we had a “Nocturnal Picnic” in La Tremblade ~ a little Oyster Fishing Port near to where we live. The weather had been changeable all day, but thankfully it wasn’t raining when we got there ~ the cloud formations were amazing and made for very dramatic photos, as you can see. The strange boats you can see with flat decks are the oyster boats ~ they have a flat deck so that the “tables” and net bags of Oysters can be loaded on with ease.
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| An oyster boat in La Tremblade. |
It was SO tempting to discard the picnic we had packed and try one of the numerous restaurants that specialise in seafood, in particular, “Eclade” ~ mussels arranged on a wooden board and cooked under burning pine needles. There were numerous men firing up the “Eclade” fires and the smell was intoxicating as we wandered past them.They arrange the mussels on different size boards, according to the number of people they are going to feed; then they place the mussels on the wooden boards IN TO a barbecue where they are covered with hot burning pine needles; the mussels are ready when they open, they are then served with chips (frites ~ fries).
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| An “Eclade” board with mussels ready for cooking. |
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| Man preparing the pine needle fire to cook the “Eclade” mussels. |
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| The pine needles burn, with the “Eclade” mussels underneath. |
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| The pine needle fire dies down and the cook is just adding heat via a gas blowtorch to make sure they are all cooked before serving them. |
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| The “Eclade” mussels are cooked and ready to be served. |
Needless to say, we all valiantly resisted the temptation to eat in the restaurants and all enjoyed the picnic I had packed……..more of that to follow later! La Tremblade is so called as it has been prone to earthquakes ~ hence the the word “tremblade” which means trembling! It is a pretty little town and the oyster port which is just outside of the town centre is unique and very atmospheric.The little huts that you can see in the photos, are only allowed to be owned by the oyster men and their families; plus, they are only for daytime use ~ they cannot sleep in them; they are for storage and day time meals and relaxation only.
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| Some of the gaily painted fisherman’s huts. |
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| La Tremblade late afternoon. |
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| One of the charming little seafood restaurants that tried to lure us in to eat! |
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| A 2 CV – one of my FAVOURITE French cars! |
And to end, as you can see I managed to capture a photo of one of my favourite French cars, the quirky and irresistible Citroen 2 CV……….sitting cheekily by the boats and huts, and painted in seaside colours! FUN!See you a little later with my picnic recipes and photos!
Karen.
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| La Tremblade |
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