Breton Galettes and Crepes

Brittany grew buckwheat because wheat struggled in the soil, and the grain gave the region its galette: a wide, thin, dark pancake cooked on a flat iron griddle and folded around ham, egg and cheese in its standard form, or around andouille sausage, scallops or spinach depending on the house. Wheat crepes came later and stayed sweet, most often with salted butter caramel, a Breton invention that has since colonised the whole country. The drink is cider, poured from the bottle into a wide ceramic bowl called a bolee, dry or sweet and usually local to within a few valleys. A proper meal is two pancakes and nothing else.

What you actually see

• The galette complete - buckwheat, ham, egg and cheese, folded into a square.
• Salted butter caramel - the standard sweet filling and a regional export.
• Cider in a bolee - a wide ceramic bowl instead of a glass.
• The billig - the flat iron griddle and the wooden rake worked across it.

When to go

Creperies work year round and are busiest in July and August, when coastal towns queue for tables from seven in the evening. Cooler months suit the food better anyway. Many close one or two days a week outside the season and stop serving early, so an eight o'clock arrival in a small town can find the griddle already cold.

Honest expectations

Quality varies enormously, and the creperies on the most photographed streets are usually the weakest, working from bought-in batter. Buckwheat is naturally free of gluten, but shared griddles and wheat crepes on the same iron mean cross-contact with wheat is routine. Two pancakes and cider sit heavier than they sound, and the cider is stronger than it tastes.

Nearby

The walled port of Saint-Malo, the standing stone fields at Carnac and the night dances held across the region.