Vitré is a fascinating town full of wonderful sights and lovely shops. This is one of them. Right…read morein the middle of the old town part. A nice independent shop with good local produce. Veggies, fruit, cheese, butter, liquor, sweets, jams, juices, beer, potted produce, snacks and charcuterie. Lovely stuff. We bought some nice goats cheese with chutney, homemade butter and two kinds of liquor (raspberry and strawberry). Cheese was fantastic. Love goats cheese and this one here was very very good. Also the butter. So nice, thick and rich. Not the usual store-bought mass product. Wonderful. Liquor was very nice too...a bit sweet maybe. But you only take small shots of these anyways. Very friendly and helpful staff/owner. Fair prices. Great location. A very nice little shop with lots of great products.

I've been eyeing this place out for the past two months, after I saw their delicious options of…read morepasta, risotto, arancini, pizzas, and various Italian desserts. and finally decided to buy something today. I was very hopeful because short lines were very common every time I passed by, which is always a good sign. I've been wanting to try the Truffle Ravioli, but only saw it in the window about 6/10 times I passed by, but today I asked, and turns out they had just prepared a fresh one, and there are other options that aren't placed in the window! I brought my own container and had them fill it, and my total came out to about 9 euros (2,80 per 100g). The worker also brought out a fresh batch of ??? deep friend chicken rolls stuffed with prosciutto and mozzarella so I added one on as well (4,10 per piece). I don't think the chicken was worth the price - it was very very average. I liked that there were no fatty parts, but there wasn't much cheese or prosciutto, so it's really like you're just paying for a small piece of deep fried chicken :/ The truffle ravioli is beautiful - fairly sized ravioli, (~1 inch in diameter), truffle cream, shaved parmesan, and bits of truffle. The ravioli is a bit thicker than I would like, giving it an almost chewy consistency and taking the spotlight away from the inside filling. And just like ALL ITALIAN FOOD IN FRANCE, IT'S SO UNDER SEASONED. I had to whip out the good ole table salt once again to bring put some life into the dish. Once the salt was added, everything became much better. I realllyyyyyyyyy wanted to be blown away by this place since I had looked forward to trying it for such a long time, but it was very meh, especially for the price. They have many other options, so I may come by to give one of their other dishes a try, but will make sure to have my salt handy with me.

Delicious macarons. I'm told that there are three major macaron boutiques in Rennes, and this is…read moreone of them. These are inexpensive compared to macarons from Maison Ladurée in the UES in NYC, but then again, everything is inexpensive compared to that. These were more reasonable even than the Maison Ladurée in Paris, at 4.95 euros for 100g of macarons. This comes out to around 8 macarons, at around 61 cents to a macaron. Less than a euro for a macaron! I could die. I was a bit stunned at how many macarons I could try. I forgot which ones I picked, except for my standbys, the vanilla macaron and the pistachio. I am not yet good at judging macarons, but the pistachio macaron was much more flavorful than the ones I had at Maison Ladurée a few days prior. They also have huge meringues for just over a euro a piece. They had wonderful chocolate sculptures (including one that resembled a painter's palette with a different colored macaron in each paint slot), and many different kinds of chocolate. I am told that the pastries here aren't as good, so I will stick to trying the chocolates and macarons. I'm sure I could spend a decent amount of money in this shop.

My favorite market in Rennes, and the only thing I look forward to on Saturdays! This market…read moresprawls across the city center, and because it's so close to the Sainte Anne metro station, it makes it all the more appealing to me! There are hundreds of vendors selling all sorts of products: flowers, fresh produce, meats, seafood, baked goods, sweets, cheeses, and dairy products, as well as food trucks and stands. All the prices are relatively similar, but there are a few stalls that sell their produce for dirt-cheap prices. The produce is VERY fresh, so you should consider buying only what you can eat within the next few days. I particularly love the baked goods section of the market, located inside the covered buildings, because of the wide variety. I get my favorite mini kouign amann from here, as well as beautifully baked brioche loaves. No one has told me a definitive hours of operations, but to my understanding they're open from at least 9am-1pm, but go as early as possible, because with each passing moment, it gets busier and busier, until you're drowning in a crowd of people.

I travelled up from Nantes to have a look round the city in general and check out this market in…read moreparticular. One of the biggest and most famous in France, Le Marché des Lices is pretty great! There must be several hundred stalls selling any food you could possibly want: fresh fruit and veg, bread, cakes, meats (cooked and raw), honey, and much more. If I lived closer I would have dived in and grabbed some of the delicious looking fresh (and often still alive) seafood, but I don't reckon the smells would have been too friendly after putting them in my bag and walking round all day in the glorious spring sun. Round the corner there is also a large flower market, but for me, it was all about the food. The fruit and veg are considerably cheaper than the fare I can find in Nantes, and the quality is excellent. Keep an eye out for the jam stalls - it will probably take an age testing out the dozens and dozens of delicious jams but that's half the fun isn't it. I bagged a kiwi and pomelo confiture with a really unique taste and I can't wait to eat it with fresh bread. Many of the vendors speak pretty good English although I was able to get by my average French. Like most markets in France it shuts at 13:30 so if you want to take your time browsing try to get down earlier rather than later. The same can be said about buying lunch there. There are maybe two dozen trailers selling lunch fare in between the two covered halls, and when I queued up at 12:30 to get un galette de saucisse (a sausage wrapped in a buckwheat crêpe - a local favourite), I had to wait for a good 20-25 minutes. Sure it was quite nice, but trying to eat this at the same time as hurriedly buying pink garlic and saucisson de canard. You can probably grab similar fare throughout the city with much less waiting. All in all however, a really great place to look round and buy some choice produce.

There were so many cakes that I wanted to try on my first visit, and I was determined to try…read moreanother cake before I left the city. I had intended to just get the Noix de Pecan Caramelises, but he had created a new tart that I knew I needed to try, so I ended up getting both (€4,90 each). The Noix de Pecan Carmelises was so amazing. The chocolate tart shell had bits of hazelnut in it, filled with a dark chocolate mousse, and topped with a caramel mousse, finished off with pecans. All the flavors went SO amazing together, and I can confidently say that this was one of the best cakes I've had in France. The Yuzu Avocado Tart was the new concoction he had created, and it was very interesting. I felt as if I was eating straight guacamole in a buttery tart shell, but in a good way HAHA. The avocado cream in the tart was very creamy, with little bits of avocado and basil. The yuzu cream stole the show, however. Wow. There was so much genuine yuzu flavor that just packed a punch in the face to you. What I love about this place besides the cute interior and the amazing cakes, is that both times I've visited, the pastry chef, Mathias is actually there, working the counter or in the back, and he takes time to explain each cake (despite the language barrier). It shows that he really cares about the effort that he's put in and wants people to enjoy what they'll be eating.