The medieval, walled town of Vannes is renowned for its Tuesday and Saturday marche. On these days, residents of the Gulf of Morbihan arrive early in order to find a parking spot and head to their preferred producers. The outdoor market is by far the largest, most impressive market I have ever encountered. One of Vannes’ Michelin chefs guided our little group, weaving through stacked crates and endless pints of strawberries. We learned that one can tell which producers are the best by looking at their fingernails; if there is dirt, they were working on their bounty that morning. The little shops; fromagerie, bouchers, and poissonnier are endless. I didn’t even include the vast, beautiful seafood ‘warehouse’ and the plentiful bakers sampling kouign amann and gateaux breton (more to come on those two subjects, I assure you.)

La Fromagerie de Kerouzine is one of the most elegant cheese shops in all the land. I highly recommend it for it’s expert staff and its silky all natural vanille yogurt, which I indulged in with a small half pint of organic raspberries.

An essential stop for any discerning Vannes shopper

A fromage master behind the wheel

Rather giant wedges of fromage

This elegant shop takes fresh and local to a whole other level. The service is superb.

Aforementioned organic yogurts. For someone who never sways from her Fage Greek yogurt, I was wonderfully surprised by this smooth, none too thick, none too thin, all natural organic (low-fat) yogurt. I suppose it’s freshness and lack of transport makes a difference. Vanille was my flavor of choice.

This is Vannes’ version of the line of mothers at your local Whole Foods