This is the holiday destination for you if you love oysters
Say wine, snacks or haute cuisine and the gourmands at online food magazine FavorFlav know where to drink, how to eat it and what to cook. This time our cheffies serve you: this is the vacation destination for you if you love oysters.
Sometimes you stumble upon a place during your vacation by chance where you never want to leave. It could be an idyllic bay in the tropics, a busy street in Brooklyn, or a trendy restaurant in London, or in my case, a cozy food market on the Atlantic coast in France.
And if you also love oysters, cheese, charcuterie, and wine (and France), then you really must go here as soon as possible.
Surfing and oysters
We went to Montalivet (about an hour and a half above Bordeaux) to surf, but I found it quite difficult to concentrate on my board because of the visions of hundreds of oysters waiting for me just a little further away... Right on the first day, we stumbled upon this morning market, which was around the corner from the cozy main street of this laid-back surf village. And what caught my eye immediately?
Food paradise
A huge stall with mountains of oysters, arranged by size, run by a whole family from grandfather to mothers and grandsons who effortlessly opened one oyster after another. At the stall, you could order a platter, at the neighbor's bar stall a glass of wine or crémant (which is sparkling wine made exactly like champagne but cannot be called champagne because it does not come from the Champagne region itself), and with that, you would stroll over to the covered picnic tables to enjoy the feast.
I went crazy with happiness. I literally ate more than a hundred oysters during our twelve-day stay. At one point, I even went from a dozen to one and a half dozen... In the morning. And it was so cheap! The most expensive kind cost €9 for a dozen, a small glass of wine €1.50. Too good.
Snack brunch
The rest of the market was also great: stall after stall was filled with local cheeses and charcuterie (which you could also order on a platter right there), the finest baguettes, and the famous canelés pastries from the region. And everywhere in between, you saw bars where you could order a glass (or bottles) of wine for next to nothing, which you then enjoyed with your food haul at a table, cozy among the other visitors (notably many locals, so extra nice).
I want this here too
A market full of food and with bars; it doesn't get better than this, does it? So if you're heading to the southwest of France, be sure to add this stop in Montalivet to your must-do list. Here you will find some info about the summer market of Montalivet. In the summer months, it is open every day until 1:30 PM and really: it is one of the best recommendations in Europe.
