Brittany: Cookie Central

So remember when I told you about our home base in Brittany

being so close to the ocean & its self-serve seafood?

Well, there was one more great thing about Saint Michel Chef-Chef.

The town itself was pretty small.

 There was one main street with a bakery, a post office, a church 

& the local café/restaurant

{which seemed to specialize in mussels... & Aussie beer!}

But the most exciting thing by far?

The Saint Michel cookie factory 

museum/gift shop/outlet store.

Whee!!!

You see, a baker based in Saint Michel Chef-Chef

at the beginning of the century starting producing yummy galettes

{basically, sugar cookies made with tons of butter... yum!}

His clever wife had the idea, back in 1905, 

to hit the beach & sell these delicious treats to the tourists

who were surely famished after breathing in all that sea air.

inside the boutique: looks like tourists are still pretty hungry these days

Of course 

we couldn't spend a couple weeks in Saint Michel Chef-Chef &

not hit up cookie central.

We watched a short film on the history of the biscuiterie,

looked at some old photos & cookie tins in display cases
& browsed all the products on the shelves.

 
You can still buy the original galettes,
although they've expanded a lot to include many other types of cookies
like madelines {my personal favourites... mmm!} 

As for the most surprising cookie in the boutique,
it was definitely this one:

If you're familiar with Australia's famous Tim Tams, 

you might wonder if these chocolate-filled cookies

are reason enough to cause an international incident.

Or maybe there's some kind of  

Brittany/Down Under alliance?

That would surely explain why on earth 

you could have a pint of Foster's 

alongside your moules-frites in Saint Michel Chef-Chef!