Gourmet products local specialties and wines Pays De La Loire

Domaine du Pont de Livier is a winegrowing estate located in Saint Georges sur Layon, Maine-et-Loire. It offers guest rooms with private bathroom and toilet, as well as an independent entrance and parking in the estate courtyard. The rooms are recent and offer good bedding. The owners, Flore and Emmanuel Rialland, are also winegrowers, and offer tastings and purchases of their wines. The table d'hôtes is available on reservation, with a minimum of 4 people. The estate can also be privatized for groups. The owners will be happy to advise visitors on places to visit in the area. The estate also offers activities such as wine tasting, hiking and cycling. Free wifi and parking are available on site.

Rooms have free Wi-Fi, breakfast is included and there's free parking. Some rooms also feature kitchens. Guests can also enjoy the indoor swimming pool.

The Coutant chocolate factory will soon celebrate its 50 years of existence in Nantes, in the gourmet district of Copernic. This artisanal chocolate factory is known for its seriousness and its quality, never denied until today. In the district, regulars but also newcomers and other tourists regularly stop in front of the attractive store. Held by the sympathetic Véronique and Laurent Carretero and their faithful team, the artisanal creations are born under the sign of the subtlety and the balance. Every month, the store window changes according to the seasons, the holidays and the news from Nantes. Among the many creations, let's mention the Muscadettes nantaises (a ganache with muscadet brandy) or the macaroons (coffee, chocolate, Grand Marnier, blackcurrant, caramel, passion, lemon, etc.). The house also makes delicious florentines, these nougatine and candied fruit palets placed on a chocolate disc. Original creations of impeccable quality. Try the home-made chocolate bites like the Duchesses (orange ganache, caramel coulis and pistachio almond paste). Created by Mr. Coutant, the Anne de Bretagne crowns (70% cocoa, raisins, almonds and hazelnuts) have become famous. One comes of course to discover the traditional chocolates house, but also the chocolates of origins (Ivory Coast, Vietnam, Costa Rica, Peru and the innovations 2022 with Uganda or Papua. Always with the surprising Equacacao directly from Ecuador from the producer to the processor! In boxes, bags or bars, we succumb to the pleasure of chocolate. The Coutant fondant (chocolate fondant with 64% cocoa from Peru, chopped roasted almonds: excellent!) is a hit. Try also the new shortbread with raspberry inserts... In summer, homemade sorbets are available for our greatest pleasure. In 2022, we can now enjoy the new Nantais Coutant cake (4 or 6 parts according to the gourmands). The little bears made of marshmallow and dark or milk chocolate were also created! Not yet 50 years old, but still very creative.

The inescapable cookie factory recognized as a quality artisan! Pierre and Géraldine are always innovating: raspberry-white chocolate cookies, peach-caramel-salted butter shortbread, rhubarb-almond slivers, crunchy biscuits, palets, meringues, prefou or salmon-dill shortbread, the delicious chocolate-caramel fondant heart, the good brioche. Our flagship product, caramel, is available in a chocolate truffle, peanut or banana flambé style. All homemade with exceptional regional raw materials (including the island's fleur de sel) without preservatives or artificial coloring.

Ô Local is a tearoom/cantine/designer boutique on the banks of the Loire. Émilie and Morgane, epicureans, wanted to promote organic and local products, well-being and living together by creating this unusual place, fitted out in a spirit of recovery and a cosy atmosphere. Here, you can take a snack break, dine on gourmet cuisine at lunchtime, or enjoy a drink while admiring the Loire River. You're sure to fall for one of the creations in the pretty boutique, or a piece of clothing from the second-hand shop. A place full of life, delicacies and sweets!

The Ferme Fruitière de la Hautière, in La Chapelle-sur-Erdre, with its 35 hectares of crops and varieties selected for their gustatory qualities, is THE ideal destination to fill up on vitamins and fruit delicacies. In the completely renovated shop, you will find fruit and vegetables grown on site, but also products processed from local production by Alexandre, Benoît and their team. Many jams, compotes, sorbets, coulis and delicious fruit juices including the new strawberry nectars and sparkling fruit juices (strawberry apple, raspberry apple, lemon apple). Among the three succulent varieties of strawberries that have been created at the farm, the Capella is always a delight for gourmets. Let's not forget the soups whose benefits are no longer to be proven. The farm also sells fresh products from small local producers (meat, cheese, yoghurts, butter) and, in partnership with a wine grower, some vintages of the Loire Valley. You can find spreads from Gourmandises de Ludo, honey from Nicolas Roux, spices and teas from Épices à ma guise, herbal teas from Mathilde Beaudoin, beef directly from Jean-Pierre Martin, foie gras from the Mitteault family (Vienne)... The farm also offers fruit compositions and fruit or vegetable baskets on order, as well as gift baskets. Offering excellent products directly from the farm is an idea to share in any circumstance. Note the Hesperides garden open from May to the end of September, ideal for a stroll! Nature at a stone's throw from Nantes.

The Talensac market is THE flagship of Nantes' commerce. This venerable institution has been in place for 85 years and is still considered THE Nantes market par excellence. To celebrate its 80th anniversary, the association has produced a beautiful book Le Bonheur est au marché de Talensac (available in bookshops) with fascinating testimonies from the shopkeepers and this great family, some of whom have been there for several generations. On the market, with nearly 200 professionals, you must discover its splendid stalls! Here you will find producers from Nantes and the surrounding area, food trades and crafts. The quality, the inventiveness, the creativity of the traders make the reputation of this covered market. It is an attraction for any self-respecting gourmet, but also for the numerous tourists who visit and fall for the quality of the products. People come for the freshness and the respect of the seasons, for the professionalism and the passion of the shopkeepers, who get up very early to offer the best: fruits and vegetables, butcher's meats and poultry with a label, country delicatessen and local products, ready-made meals, fresh water or sea fish, grocery, bakery, cheeses, pastries, Loire wines, caterers from here and elsewhere, everything is there. Even a newsstand and crêpes! Don't miss the big market at the end of the week, with basketry, florists, clothes, handicrafts. Happiness is always at the market!

In Parnay, Philippe and Agnès Porché open the doors of their certified organic estate to let you discover their winemaking know-how. Here, they honor the wines whose names are reminiscent of the court of the ancient nobility: the Troubadour, the Page, the Fou, the Jouvencelle... Meticulous wine-making allows them to offer beautiful and tasty white, rosé and red wines and delicate bubbles! Finalists since 2019 of the Trophées de l'oenotourisme, medallists 2020 and 2021, they offer several activities around wine, fun and educational.

In the Graslin district of Paris, Capkao has set its sights on cocoa, bringing on board the expertise and talent of two complementary partners: pastry chef Nicolas Riveau and chocolatier Anthony Bourdillat (son of Angevin chocolatier Stéphane Bourdillat). These two enthusiasts met at the Valrhona school, where they were both instructors. The idea of this pretty establishment, which is both a laboratory and a boutique where you can discover their delicious and creative creations, was born from their experiences at fine addresses (such as the Crillon with Christophe Adam). Their Capkao brand offers a wide range of chocolate bars (including the gourmet white chocolate and raspberry), spreads, delicious beketés (little chocolate candies with corn, dark chocolate, etc.), pralines and ganaches, including Souvenir d'enfance (vanilla yoghurt ganache with raspberry confit), Original (black sesame praline with fresh ginger) and Breton (buckwheat praline). As for pastries, you'll love the creamy vanilla flan, the pavlova, the chocolate financier, and cakes with evocative names: Cap sur l'Ardèche, featuring chestnuts, or Cap sur les States au chocolat. The welcome is warm, and Nicolas and Anthony take the time to explain their know-how. Good news: in 2022, L'Atelier Capkao has just opened. Pastry and chocolate-making classes can now be booked for 3 to 8 people maximum. Count on 2h30 of sharing and conviviality. And, of course, you get to take home your own creation! Anthony teaches the chocolate classes and Nicolas the pastry classes.

Oyster lovers, this is the place to come! The oysters of this passionate oyster farmer are not lacking in rewards, starting with a new gold medal at the Concours Général Agricole at the Salon de l'Agriculture 2022 for his special oysters. An oyster producer in the Bay of Bourgneuf, Baptiste sells his oysters and shellfish at La Cabane, located in Port des Champs. He makes it a point of honor to produce oysters in the respect of the tradition. Great welcome and quality !

À Table Traiteur is chef Didier's production laboratory, after 25 years in the restaurant business. It offers refined cuisine for corporate and private customers, by order only. With fresh produce and great adaptability, quality is the order of the day. From home-smoked salmon and elaborate dishes (chicken à l'indienne, poultry ballottine with basil...) to cocktail formulas or gourmet menus (Breton sablé with basil jelly and bell pepper cream with mascarpone, pike-perch pavé with beurre blanc or vanilla cream...), each dish is an explosion of flavors.

Behind the new Leclerc Drive, or Hyperburo, the new address for exotic and Asian products in Le Mans is here. At attractive prices (lower than supermarket prices). Chillies, bean sprouts, flours, teas, cookies, drinks, rice, sauces, nori leaves and many other products are available on the shelves. But the most impressive is the frozen food section, with lots of fish, but also desserts, smoked meat, samousas and Reunion corks. The products come mainly from Asia, but also from Africa and the West Indies. The sales area is around 300^m2, enough to add a touch of the exotic to your dishes so that your guests won't be able to resist, and to whom you'll be happy to pass on the address. The young owner Xin Lin is very friendly and it's not uncommon to hear Ni hao, which undeniably adds to the exoticism of this store. And if the northern zone doesn't tempt you, there's the same in the city center!

On the Ile de Nantes, a stone's throw from L'Éléphant, Sabrina, a naturopath by training, and her husband Grégory Lejeune, a pastry chef, have opened an exceptional patisserie. The two decided to combine their respective passions in this bold and highly successful project. The new establishment focuses on creative, healthy and natural pastries. This alternative patisserie focuses on the senses: sight, because "you eat first with your eyes", as Sabrina puts it, and taste, with gustatory flavors such as poached pears with hibiscus juice in Déli'biscus (sweet pastry, organic vanilla diplomate), the spirulina circle on organic vanilla and white chocolate chou. The creations, which are as pretty as they are tasty, are also less sweet, using only natural sugars (e.g. coconut blossom sugar) with a low glycemic index (ideal for diabetics and gourmands who need to be careful), such as the matcha green tea macaroons, with no additives or artificial coloring, using certified organic French flours, as well as non-hybridized and gluten-free flours. Délicatessaine's approach is delicate and healthy, ethical and responsible, as it favors local and seasonal products. Délicatessaine is also a tea room where you can sit down for a cup of tea or coffee. You can also enjoy home-made chocolate bars. Educational workshops to learn how to bake lighter. You can make healthy, tasty snacks for children, or prepare pastries for allergy sufferers. In fine weather, enjoy the terrace while sampling the Déli'fragola: a gluten-free pastry (shortcrust pastry, strawberry confit, peas, yoghurt mousse, burrata heart, fresh organic and local strawberries) and a great new addition in 2022, the Déli'grey: a low GI pastry (hazelnut and citrus shortbread, light Earl Grey tea mousse, soft hazelnut and citrus zest cookie, bergamot confit), a real treat!

The famous "Clos d'entre les Murs" contains walls with holes through which the vines gain access to the sun in order to get the necessary calories for its ripening. A very nice visit for a site that mixes history, geology, techniques and pleasures. One can taste and buy the wines produced here, from a wonderful variety of saumur-champigny, the Clos du Château, which will delight the amateurs of notes of liquorice, to the very famous dry white wine the Clos d'entre les Murs, of a great richness, which presents a very fruity and slightly wooded nose. Great wines!

After successfully opening their chocolate pastry shop in Vertou in 2011, Stéphane Pasco, helped by his sister Isabelle in this beautiful adventure, set up a boutique in Nantes in the summer of 2019 to the delight of the people of Nantes. And to showcase the pastry chef's productions, they have created a sort of jewel case: a dark setting where the colours of delicious cakes, tasty cakes, pretty macaroons with pastel and acidic reflections are revealed, not forgetting the farandole of succulent chocolates. Taste pastries such as the Facilité, a favourite, salted butter caramel/milk chocolate mousse/salted peanuts/Brittany sand, or the Signature, a taste journey with sunny colours, vanilla light cream/ mango compote/ginger mango/coconut rock/shortbread, savour the delicacies for examplethe Pistachio-Amarena Cake, the airy and melting lightness of morello cherries, and taste chocolates such as Agapé, passion fruit ganache, a subtle sensation of eating the fruit. The expression "when art is tasted" takes on its full meaning here. Stéphane Pasco works pastry like a plastic art. And like in an art gallery, he exhibits his creations. You can admire his latest work all in chocolate in the shop window... We would eat it!