Fat, briny oysters from Oléron, purchased direct from the producer at the Orthez Saturday market, made a quick and easy evening meal. These beauties are what they call “fines de claire” meaning that that they spent their last few weeks (before I popped them open and squeezed lemon on them) in a “claire”, a sort of marshy pool in the wetlands along the coast, where the higher salt level and abondent food supply (for an oyster) make them, well, fat and briny. These are No. 4’s, toward the small end of the French oyster size scale that runs from 6 (tiny) to 0 (very large). I like a smaller oyster, and it just so happens, smaller are cheaper. These were 6 euros a dozen. Yes, everything good to eat is much cheaper in France. By the way, Oléron is on the Atlantic coast, just south of La Rochelle and north of the Medoc.
