Locquirec waterfront on the coast of Brittany is like something Monet might have painted: shadowy figures against a back drop of soft misty sea, bending, gently teasing les coques--cockles, out of the shifting sands. Gleaners of the sea.
Unlike along the Thames where they dredge these little fellows by sucking them out of the sand using huge vacuum pumps, the local Bretagne folk treat these little bivalves gently using just a rake. They can fill a plastic bucket in no time. Free. From beneath beautiful Breton sands. When the tides are out. Using simple tools from the back shed.
A delightful old man on the beach explained to me in effusive expressive French (which I only partially understood and, then, only because of the context) that when he gathered les coques he had to wash them in litres et litres (et litres!) of salty sea water, getting rid of the sand. Then he liked to steam them open and dress them with garlic oil.
I longed to join them.
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| Locquirec in Monet colours |
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