Memories of the summer

Me again. Clive & I are watching Rick Stein's tv show about the culinary canal trip he took down through France. He has just been to visit the oyster ropes in Bouzigues and he as he sat there on a sunny restaurant terrace with glass of wine and huge oyster shaped bowl of clams & oysters - he delared that he had eaten oysters all around the world but his favourite of all are oysters from L'Etang de Thau. He explained that the metal oyster frames we could see are actually made from old railway tracks & the oysters are actually glued together on the rope. They are let to grow for a year and over 800 growers depend on them for their living. He mentioned Meze & Marseillan as there are plans to build along the coastline. Hopefully this won't happen as the environmental damage would harm the precious grade A status of the water which means that you can eat the shellfish raw. He is now in Sete on Bastille Day watching the water jousting and fireworks.