Wined, dined and rested.

… not an obvious time of year for this destination, you might think. Well, dear reader, I beg to differ. Actually, in truth I think we were just very very lucky. I mean, who goes to north Brittany at ANY time of year and gets two full weeks of sunshine?  With apologies to those who have spent two weeks in July or August in Brittany and returned damper than when they left, we did in fact have two weeks of sun.  It was quite windy, and it wasn’t hot, but it was sunny most of the time and with no tourists to speak of it was absoloutely wonderful. We walked on huge deserted beaches and we discovered some very good places to eat.

Practically on the beautiful beach of Primel Tregastel, on the headland over the estuary from Roscoff, one of the grand buildings built when this was a fashionable beach resort at the turn of the 20^th century has been turned into a restaurant-with-rooms called La Cameline.

Both its rather grand conservatory overlooking the sea, and the room it’s attached to, make up the dining area which I can only describe as an early 21^st century version of early 20^th century style. The conservatory area is very attractive, I think I may not have been as happy to have been placed in the inner room where the lighting looked a little bright. However, this was not an issue on the Sunday night when we were there since – why does this keep happening to us? – we were the only diners and the smiling lady who welcomed us warmly offered us the choice of any table we wanted.

So we happily settled ourselves at the restaurant’s best table, and accepted the charming lady’s suggestion of an aperitif that she said she had developed for Valentine’s day, a sparkling wine with a shot of Calvados and a fresh raspberry, rather like a kir normand but without the cassis. We then studied the menu, sipping our aperitif and surrounded by glass and multiple reflections of candles while listening to the muted but roaring wind outside and hearing the waves crash onto the sea wall just metres from our table. It was a delightfully relaxing way to start a meal.

One of us had the fish soup to start, which was gorgeous, intensely fishy and with that texture that coats your tongue, extending the flavour even further – delicious, although not quite up to the next-level fish soup at Argoe in Newlyn …….

And our other starter choice was the “pétoncles”, or queen scallops. These are a little smaller than the scallops that are usually served in restaurants, and here they were served in a snail dish with lashings of garlic butter. The slightly unexpected sweetness of these smaller scallops is complemented perfectly by garlic butter (isn’t everything? I hear you mutter…)

When you’re in Brittany it makes sense to stick with produce from the sea, so we both chose the same main course which was Saint Jacques scallops served inside puff pastry with shrimps in a creamy sauce seasoned with espelette pepper. The little Breton flag thrust into it obviously added extra spice to the flavour, and the Quincy wine we had chosen went particularly well with it.

We ended our meal with a moelleux au chocolat….

… and a crème brulée.

Both were tasty, although this was my first time with a moelleux au chocolat that appeared to have had the chocolate sauce poured in to the cake part, presumably having drilled a hole for it first? Unusual, and not an improvement on how it’s usually done, but the flavour was good. The crème brulée was excellent, if a little large. And there had clearly been a job lot of raspberries delivered to the restaurant that week.

I would definitely return to this pretty place with its delightful, friendly staff, although I suppose our perception of the service might have been skewed by the fact that we were the only two people there that night. We noticed on subsequent evenings, both mid-week and week-end, that it didn’t open again so perhaps our visit was the last straw. The two delightful ladies who served us, and Monsieur in the kitchen, probably looked at each other once we had left and cried “Assez! Enough! Let us leave these heathen shores which deliver to us only two retired English people on a Sunday night! Let us hence to Martinique to chance our luck.” Thus the destiny of entire coastal communities are changed….  The curse of Wined Dined and Rested.