Portraits of France: Audierne in Brittany
In the sixth and last installment in our series on French villages, we travel to the far reaches of Brittany, where the sea crashes against rocky shores and lobsters and crabs abound.
The sea, the sea. France has over 2000 miles of coastline, but nowhere do the waves crash harder than on the shores of Brittany. The fingers of this peninsula reach far into the Atlantic, and so it is no surprise that the Bretons have for generations earned their livelihoods as sailors and fishermen. One of the region’s most traditional fishing villages, Audierne, sits on Cap Sizun, nor far from the sheer cliffs of the Pointe du Raz. This town on the estuary of the Goyen River, 22 miles west of Quimper, is home to hundreds of fishing boats, including the langoustiers, specialized vessels with chambers that communicate directly with the sea for catching lobsters and crabs.
In the early morning, the harbor is a thicket of masts, and the quayside bustles with fishermen fixing their nets. The smell of seaweed and iodine fills the air. As the sun rises higher, the whitewashed facades of the Breton houses lining the quay begin to brighten, and the aroma of buckwheat crepes—a Breton speciality that goes perfectly with locally brewed cider—lures you up the hill into Audierne’s quiet and narrow streets. From here, you can gaze over the steep slate roofs to the green waters of the Goyen River, flowing along its high banks lined with pine trees.
The day’s catch ends up at Les Viviers d’Audierne, where lobsters and crabs harvested by the langoustiers are stored in briny pools before being sold. A visit there provides a lesson about these noble creatures: A two pound spiny lobster would be about 25 years old, and a seven pound specimen can claim at least a century of scuttling along the seabed. The record for Audierne is a 19 pounds lobsters, which must have been born well before the French revolution.
Each month, at least a thousand tons of these crustaceans end up in the kitchen of the quayside hotel-restaurant Le Goyen, Audierne’s fanciest. Here, then, is the perfect way to end a day in Audierne: A table by the window looking over the lamplit quayside, a bottle of Muscadet cooling in an ice bucket, and the sounds of the seagulls squawking as the boats sway with the harbor’s gentle tide.
