If you haven’t ventured to Brest in Brittany I would highly recommend you do. For starters it is a very short plane journey. I stayed with friends and their family in a wonderful maison Villa Ker Izella right on the beach, Plage du Kelenn in a very pretty area of Finistere. We had a truly wonderful time, the weather was superb and all the French people I met there were amazingly welcoming and very friendly. The coastal path from the beach had fantastic views and historic points of interest. The beaches were sandy, full of shells with lots of boats bobbing up and down in the shimmering sea. Beautiful cafés providing the most delicious crepes you could ever wish to eat.

One warm and sunny morning (actually everyday was sunny), as the tide was out my friend and her family took me and my daughter shell fishing. We had to search for keyhole shapes in the wet sand and when one was spotted we then put a pinch of salt in the hole. This, as my friend explained, was to make the shellfish think that the tide was coming in. The clam would then start to push its way to the surface of the sand. You then held the tip of the shell tightly (but not too tightly) and for a while it felt like a game of tug of war with the shellfish trying to suck itself back into the wet sand. After a short while the clam gave in then you were able to gently pull the clam out from the wet sand.  Between the children it became a competition to see how many each child could find, it was great fun and I loved every minute of it.

Oh and of course we cooked the clams for tea.

Villa Ker Izella is available for holiday rentals, contact mike.davies@hotmail.com or 07966374355 for details.