La Martinière La Flotte-en-Ré

Ice cream made on the island, eaten on the quay

Ice cream is the whole argument here, and it has been since 1970, when the family behind La Martinière started making it on Île de Ré. The La Flotte salon de thé is the seated branch of that house, on the harbour quay in the old port town, and the setting shapes a visit as much as the sweets do. The work is artisanal and made in house rather than bought in, with the maison holding the title of Maître Artisan Glacier on the island, and its membership of Relais Desserts, the association of leading pastry houses, marks where the sweet programme sits. Frozen pastry is treated with the same seriousness as the cones.

The salon, not the takeaway window

The useful distinction in La Flotte is that the house runs two identities on the same quay. The salon de thé is where you sit; a separate takeaway counter a few doors along is the quick stop for a cone, a waffle, a frozen macaron or a pastry to walk with. The salon is built for lingering, and its own description of itself as a place given to the art of living is a fair summary of the pace. Savoury tartes and apéro boards made with local products sit beside the sweet side, so a stop can stretch into something closer to a light meal. It is a French seaside tea salon rather than a restaurant: seated, unhurried and tied to the rhythm of the quay, with oyster stalls, seafood shops and passing harbour traffic outside.

Order the frozen pastry, not just the cone

Order from the part of the range the house is known for. Glaces come first, then the frozen pastry work: macarons glacés, pâtisseries glacées, verrines glacées, bâtonnets glacés and gaufres. Production runs from the laboratory at Sainte-Marie de Ré and the frozen pastry atelier at Saint-Martin de Ré, so the La Flotte salon draws on the same kitchens as the rest of the family business rather than a single back room. If the plan is a fast cone or a waffle in hand, the takeaway counter is the better door. If the plan is to sit by the harbour and make the ice cream or the pastry the centre of the break, the salon is the reason to stop.