Foraging for clams at low tide to make campfire spaghetti vongole
Driving through the margarine sunflowers of Charentes-Maritimes I get to possibly my favourite place in the world….the Ile de Ré, a pale sunlit island off the Atlantic coast of France, a lengthy bridge ride from former Huegenot stronghold La Rochelle. If you don’t have access to a holiday home, visitors can camp cheaply on the isle, in shady pine-scented forests next to champagne coloured dunes; you can hear the rolling sea as you sleep. There are flat paths lacing the island where you can cycle safely. The villages are chic, populated by willowy tanned rich people wearing blue and white stripes and straw fedoras. Around the small white cottages tall crimson and dusty rose hollyhocks sprout like weeds. The starry night sky hums to the rythmic rotation of the lighthouse beams at the end of the islet.
For a food lover, this place caters unique ingredients:
- Go to La Martinière in St. Martin for one of France’s five top artisanal icecream makers.
- Taste the salted butter caramels (recipe in MsMarmitelover’s Secret Tea Party)
- Buy the celebrated fleur de sel, reminiscent of violets.
- Crunch the yellow butter with large salt crystals, the creamy cheeses.
- Don’t miss the local wines which match well with fish and seafood
- Sip Pineau de Charentes, a local sweet wine, as a chilled aperitif.
In the morning, walking on the deserted beaches, you can forage your own shellfish: mussels, oysters, crabs. I like to go out at low tide (try Plage de Trousse Chemise) and dig up clams, you can spot them by the little breathing holes they leave in the sand as they burrow down. Here, in my first column for the Hampstead and Highgate Express newspaper, is my recipe for campfire seaside spaghetti vongole.
Aoife Behan
August 19, 2015 at 4:10 pmReally beautiful blog post Kerstin. I want run away right now!
Kerstin Rodgers aka MsMarmiteLover
August 19, 2015 at 5:37 pmCan we go together? Been ages xx
MMRG
August 19, 2015 at 4:41 pmGorgeous photography.
Kerstin Rodgers aka MsMarmiteLover
August 19, 2015 at 5:37 pmThank you x
Elinor Hill
August 24, 2015 at 1:38 pmJust the right thing to read of a dull rainy day like today. Elinor x
Kerstin Rodgers aka MsMarmiteLover
August 24, 2015 at 8:48 pmGrim isn't it? What happened to our summer? As a beach lover, you'd love ile de re Elinor
Anonymous
August 29, 2015 at 8:14 pmGod's gifts – hollie hawks(sp) – love them – made dolls out of them when I was a child way back then – memories!!!!! Thank you for sharing such beauty!!!!!! Sincerely, Jud
Kerstin Rodgers aka MsMarmiteLover
August 29, 2015 at 9:07 pmI've never heard them called Hollie Hawks before! xx
Sarah Trivuncic
September 29, 2015 at 10:44 amI adore it here, many happy holidays and that's my favourite ice cream shop there – my favourite "bag for life" for grocery shopping is a huge wide La Martiniere bag with that design on it.
Kerstin Rodgers aka MsMarmiteLover
September 29, 2015 at 11:42 amIt is lovely, a real haven. The icecream place is as good as any in Italy I think.