LA CHAMADE

A thoroughly charming young couple, Colleen Besseau and Corentin Augère, have set up shop in the Bay of Mont-Saint-Michel. In a pleasant interior, Colleen provides delightful service. The chef's generous, well-executed dishes exude all the flavour of the quality ingredients with which they are made. Shining examples include gravlax trout with a rye foam, beautifully glazed with honey and vinegar, and wheat risotto with tahini and purslane. They come in the format of a small menu-carte and the bill is more than reasonable.

This charming, rustic16C presbytery in the heart of a photogenic country village on the road to Mont Saint Michel is home to a restaurant flanked by a cottage garden. The latter provides chef Thomas Benady with plenty of produce (veg, fruit, aromatic herbs, flowers…) and inspiration for his single set surprise menu. Benady also works with small local producers and independent fishermen. You can expect a veggie-led, seafood slant presented and plated in a modern, minimalist manner and steeped in the distinctive personality and character of its author. Examples: roast Jerusalem artichoke served

The restaurant's tasteful interior nicely offsets the food, which is devised by an enthusiastic and talented chef, the grandson of a baker. Meticulous cuisine, fine regional produce and culinary delights: quite simply, the best restaurant in Granville.

In Granville, Stéphane Haissant cooks up unpretentious cuisine rooted in the maritime terroir. Quality ingredients are prepared with a true understanding of their flavours: flaked pollock lifted by fruity green peppercorns, leek coulis brightened with curry oil, buckwheat seeds for a crunchy touch; roasted line-caught whiting with toasted hazelnuts, polenta with Parmesan, scallop cream flavoured with pink ginger and tender endives. In the dining room with its "modern beach hut" vibe, you feel like you are on a seaside holiday.

Mont Saint-Michel has long been a spiritual landmark, but its food scene has always had a less glowing reputation. Happily, this new restaurant, housed in the former fire station at the foot of the abbey, is now atoning for many past culinary transgressions. The seafood-focused menu celebrates seasonal, predominantly local ingredients (fish, shellfish, crustaceans) – with some meat for good measure. Beyond the expansive terrace with its breathtaking views over the bay, you come to an interior done out in wood, stone and copper.

Good restaurants are hard to find around Mont-Saint-Michel – casualties of the tourist frenzy that surrounds the fourth most visited monument in France. That makes it all the more of a pleasure to come across this establishment, where at every service they roll out the red carpet for a limited number of diners. The traditional cuisine is made with local produce: sole meunière, blue lobster and rack of salt marsh lamb. A surefire sign of quality – a page of the menu is devoted to their suppliers.