Three 3 stars in France day 7: a look around the island

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Nights are certainly quiet here on Noirmoutier, and while I would have loved to spend an idyllic morning enjoying the island breeze, there was work to be done... so I stayed in my AirB and B room this morning. I still had some strawberries leftover, so that was kind of my breakfast. I do need some caffeine to kickstart the day, and thankfully I had brought along Ta Vie 旅's coffee from Simple Kaffa. So I sat on the deck outside my room and enjoyed the breeze for a little bit...

None of my traveling companions wanted lunch, as some had been overfed at breakfast; while Monsieur Croissant had gone out to get his croissant fix. So... when lunchtime came around, I strolled over to Le Petit Couillon to pick up some viennoiserie. After all, it's part of the empire of the Couillon family, n'est-ce pas? I parked myself on a bench next to the harbor so I could enjoy the goodies.

Unfortunately, this pain au chocolate was pretty forgettable.

This brioche sucré rose was... FAIL. This was dry and crumbly, with some bits of rose-flavored sugar on top. I think I went through about 1/3 or 1/4 before giving up. I did save the rest of it for Monsieur Croissant to try, but he was having none of it.

After the wonderful breads we had last night, it's clear that whoever baked those were not responsible for their bakery business... Well, I did pick up a jar of pickled salicornia to bring home to mom.

We did eventually get together with the aim of grabbing some coffee, so our chauffeur drove us to the center of Noirmoutier-en-Île. I sat down for coffee at Blue Café and even thought about grabbing a sandwich. But the coffee was pretty meh, so we lost interest in giving them any more money.

Château de Noirmoutier is just across the street, so we went to take a look. This Romanesque keep was built in the 12th century, and nowadays it's a museum. Unfortunately none of us had much interest in paying to go in...

Eglise Saint-Philbert was originally built by Saint-Philbert around 675 A.D. It's been burned down, rebuilt, then ransacked multiple times by Vikings and Normans.

The rosary altar at the south transcept was pretty richly decorated.

I stopped by the local branch of Maison Georges Larnicol, founded by M.O.F. whose signature item is kougnettes - mini versions of Brittany's kouign amann. These come in many different flavors here, so I picked up a few. This kougnette rhum raisin definitely tasted like it, but was just drenched in syrup.

Next we went salt-shopping in the salt marshes in the middle of the island, and our chauffeur took us to Le Marais de Bonne Pogne, a shop my friends they have visited before.

The island is, of course, famous for its salt. So I was more than happy to buy some as souvenir. I'm sure Foursheets would be more than happy to use some fleur de sel that I carry all the way back from here in her cooking.

We made one last stop before going back, and that was to Super U. I was looking for new and exotic flavors of potato chips from Brets, and I was in heaven. There were so, so many different flavors... including all my favorites, and the new ones I was looking for. Now I can go home with no regrets.

Three 3 stars in France day 6: the pearl of Noirmoutier

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A few hours after stuffing our faces next door, I showed up at the front door to La Marine - the destination restaurant with 3 macarons run by the Couillon family on the site of the former establishment operated by Alexandre's parents. Apparently this place has seen a major revamp, where the kitchen now faces the harbor and anyone passing by outside can get a peek into the action through the windows. The dining area has been relocated to the rear of the restaurant with a view of the gardens. And visitors are now asked to wait in the foyer, where they get to watch a beautiful introductory video that would have cost a pretty penny to produce.

Céline greeted us at the door and led us to our table. We were also looked after by Vincent, who had actually spent time in Hong Kong at a bistro I never had to pleasure of patronizing. Thirsty from the 80-meter walk from his hotel room around the corner, Geruhage immediately asked Vincent for a glass of Champagne...

We began our meal with a handful of starters, prepping our stomachs for the bigger things coming our way:

"Eau de tomate", infusion aux feuilles de tagète - no surprise here that there's plenty of umami, but we've also got sweetness. This was so refreshing!

Three 3 stars in France day 6: a trip to the island

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I'm taking an early morning train ride again. I checked out of Novotel Paris Centre Gare Montparnasse and rolled my suitcase downhill to Gare Montparnasse. I don't have the leftover bread for Frédéric Lalos, and I got to the station a little too late to grab some kouign amann from Yann Couvreur, so... no brekkie for me this morning.

I met up with Geruhage and Tomo-chan after getting off the train at Gare de Nantes, and after a quick stop at Paul for coffee, we ran into Monsieur Croissant while on the way to collect the rental van. We're so lucky to have a chauffeur for our road trip to Noirmoutier...

As it's just before noon, the high was still too high for us to make the crossing on the Passage du Gois... so we had to get on the island by driving across the Pont de Noirmoutier - making our journey slightly longer. Eventually, though, we arrived at the northwestern tip of the island and parked the van right in front of the Port de l'Herbaudière.

Lunch today is at Élise, Poisson et Braise - the casual eatery run by Alexandre Couillon and family right next to their famed 3-macaron restaurant. We were warmly welcomed by Alexandre's wife Céline and their daughter Emma. We were seated in the middle of the long counter, and food just started arriving in quick succession...

Gazpacho - made with tomatoes from the garden.

Three 3 stars in France day 5: dinner at granny's

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Tonight's dinner was at Geoélia, the (relatively) new restaurant opened last summer by Chef Camille Saint-M'leux - replacing the Parisien institution that was the Chinese restaurant Tang. The restaurant is, apparently, named after the boat owned by the chef's grandparents. Geruhage was already familiar with the chef, and I was just happy to tag along, once again.

Chef Camille very kindly offered us a glass of bubbly to start.

JM Sélèque Solessence, dégorgée en Decembre 2024 - as expected with this winemaker, the acidity was on the high side.

Gougéres - always happy to see these. Great to nibble on when you're hungry, and they go so well with Champagne.

Three 3 stars in France day 5: Asian flavors in Paris

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I didn't manage a lot of sleep on account of a late night last night, and I had to get up and do some work while I had the spare time. Seeing that I have a big lunch planned today, I skipped breakfast. One thing I liked about Novotel Paris Centre Gare Montparnasse is that they have a dispenser for filtered water out in the hall, so I don't have to go out and buy myself drinking water.

The Hairy Chevalier had recommended I try Plénitude at the Cheval Blanc Paris, but this happened to be the week that 50 Best Hotels was doing their annual shindig in town, and it became even more impossible than usual to get a seat. Thankfully he managed to get me a seat at Le Gabriel, Jérôme Banctel's restaurant in La Réserve. So that's where I was headed for lunch today.

I arrived much too early.

As one of the restaurants holding 3 macarons, it's natural that it would be a tourist destination. It became pretty obvious that half of the patrons today were visitors, with the majority of them being Asian. I was the only solo diner.

I needed to get back to my hotel room to join a board meeting, so I asked the staff to inform the kitchen so that I could finish the longer menu entitled Virée, which is Chef Jerome's expression of his Bretagne background. It also meant I couldn't really drink much, so I was looking for wine or Champagne by the glass. As luck would have it, they had exactly the Champagne I was looking for. It's a shame I couldn't open a whole bottle...

Romain Henin Le Gamin du Ter-Terre, dégorgée le 23 Fevrier 2024 - more than 2 years after dégorgement the nose has developed some maturity, definitely showing more oxidation with marmalade, and a little bit of metallic notes.