Food specialities in Western Loire

Sweet tooths

  • From La Fraiseraie, at Pornic: sorbets, jams, preserves, fruit syrups, fruit jellies. 100% natural.
  • Les Niniches, from La Baule and Le Pouliguen, chewy sweets with various flavours.
  • Brioche, the famous sweet French bread, is actually a Vendée speciality.
  • Quernons d'ardoise angevins: delicious nougat chocolates, coloured blue like the local slates.
  • Berlingots and Rigolettes from Nantes: traditional sweets with a fruit filling.
  • LU biscuits: the most famous are Petit-Beurre, from Nantes.
  • BN de Nantes, yummy biscuits.
  • Petit Sablé from Sablé-sur-Sarthe: these biscuits are made with fresh butter and recognised as a heritage food.
  • St-Michel galettes (pancakes) from St-Michel-Chef-Chef and Batz-sur-Mer.

Savoury

  • Bouchot musseld grown and ahrvested the traditional way: on wooden posts in Aiguillon Bay.
  • Vendée Atlantique oysters, a quality product.
  • Fresh sardines and anchovies brought ashore at Satint-Gille-Croix-de-Vie and La Turballe.
  • Sea salt and the highly-prized fleur de sel salt from the Guérande and Noirmoutier salt pans.
  • Bonnottes, famous new potatoes from Noirmoutier.
  • Rillettes de Sarthe, meat spread made from pork or goose.
  • Fouaces (or fouées): rolls and flat bread baked in a wood-fired oven and spread with rillettes, goat's cheese or local mogettes (beans)...
  • Button mushrooms (champignons de Paris) cultivated for over a century in Saumur's limestone caves.
  • Beurre blanc, the Loire Valley's own delicate sauce for river fish. Ingredients: white wine, vinegar, butter, shallots.

Drinks and liqueurs

  • Cider and apple drinks from the Mayenne.
  • Le Nantillais, a traditional syrup made from ginger, orange and lemon peel, and mixed with Muscadet or fizzy water.
  • Kamok, a delicious coffee-based liqueur.
  • Combier have made fruit-based liqueurs such as Guignolet d'Anjou in Saumur for 150 years.
  • Cointreau: world famous orange liqueur made since 1849 at St-Barthélémy-d'Anjou, near Angers.

Pornic