WhyTravel

… and the galette.

Galette with leeks and mushrooms

IMO, you can never go wrong on a visit to France. I visit Paris any chance I get. It took me quite a few visits to venture outside of Paris and I am glad I did. Thus far, there has not been a bad decision in the lot.

A few years ago, I visited the Brittany region. Breton is both the name of the region in their language and the language itself, though most Bretons speak French. They are a Celtic group and you will experience a unique culture here different from other parts of France, including a strong nautical feel. Anthony Bourdain visited for a No Reservations episode and he ate a LOT of seafood. (Anthony, we miss you.)

But onto the wonderful galette…

They are commonly eaten as the dinner meal, but feel free to have one any time. They are huge and make a whole meal. This picture, with my mom in the background, gives you a sense of the size:

 Galette of smoked salmon and leeks

Notice hers is square and mine (the first photo) is hexagonal 🙂 They like to do that. We could not finish our galettes and had to leave some behind.

My dad had fried egg and ham. It’s bigger than the angle shows here. He was full.

Galettes — unlike crêpes — are made with buckwheat flour. They have bit heartier flavor and are gluten-free! Apparently there is a debate raging about galettes vs. crêpes that you can read about here.

Dinan, France

This is the outside of the restaurant that produced our galettes. The whole town is lovely and full of these medieval half-timbered buildings.

A couple more notes on food and drink: a very drinkable hard cider is consumed throughout the region, with galettes or without. It’s usually dry, but you can inquire about which varieties they have on hand.

photo credit: francetravelplanner

It is imperative to leave you with this one last photo.

In St. Malo, 40 minutes from Dinan

St. Malo is also the setting for one of my very favorite books, All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. Read it before you go!