Your handy guide to the seafood hotspots of the Charente-Maritime

If the taste of the ocean is high on your list of gourmet priorities while holidaying in France, you will love a new tourist map which has been created by the Charente-Maritime department.

La route des saveurs maritimes – subtitled “le goût d’ici” (the taste of here) – lists about 50 seafood hotspots, from shacks to restaurants to museums, designed to highlight the importance of the ocean, food and heritage of the area, and all guaranteed to make your mouth water.

Choose according to your favoured morsel – oysters, shrimps, mussels – or which part of the coastline you are planning to tour. Discover which oyster shacks are pet-friendly, and choose where you want to dine on fresh fish with the sand between your toes. Or push the boat out and dine at one of the Michelin-starred eateries listed on the site.

The website also lists museums such as the Port des Salines Ecomuseum, where you can learn all about how salt marshes work and the importance of their biodiversity, the various stages of salt harvesting, and the history of the salt trade on the island of Oléron.

Or head to Cité de L’huître in the heart of the largest oyster refining marsh in Europe, where you can discover the intricacies of oyster farming, its people and their history. You can also learn how to open oysters properly or jump on your bike for a tour of the marshes.

Find out more at the website: saveurs-maritimes.com

Lead photo credit : Port des Salines salt farm © Shutterstock