La Martinière Saint-Martin de Ré

More than sixty parfums from an Île de Ré glacier

The tubs are the reason to stop at La Martinière Saint-Martin de Ré, the flagship counter of a family-run Île de Ré house that has been making ice cream since 1970. More than sixty flavours run through the case, alongside frozen pastry work: macarons glacés, verrines glacées, pâtisseries glacées and bâtonnets glacés. The trade name the house uses for itself, Maître Artisan Glacier sur l’île de Ré depuis 1970, is a fair description of the programme, which stays firmly in glacier territory. Gault & Millau named it among the five best ice-cream makers in France in 2012, and the shop still reads as the public face of a serious production house rather than a seasonal kiosk.

A harbour-front counter built for the queue

The Saint-Martin-de-Ré shop is a boutique counter on the old harbour, set up for walk-in choosing and carrying away rather than sitting down. The making happens elsewhere: the house runs a manufacture in Sainte-Marie de Ré where the glaces, pâtisseries glacées and biscuits are produced, so what you see here is refrigerated display and service rather than a working kitchen behind glass. The house also keeps a salon de thé in La Flotte, which is where the seated version of the brand lives.

That division shapes the rhythm. In high season the queue builds along the port, and the counter is organised for turnover: look, choose, pay, and take the cone or the box back out into the harbour. It fits neatly between a walk around the quays and a table somewhere else, which is how most people use it.

Order a cone, then look at the frozen pastry

Start with the ice cream, because the flavour list is the whole argument. With more than sixty parfums the case rewards a two-scoop decision rather than a single safe one, and the classic route is one fruit against one cream or nut flavour. From there, the frozen pastry is the more interesting order: macarons glacés and verrines glacées are the formats that travel best to a table, while bâtonnets glacés are the easiest to eat on the move.

For the non-frozen side, the house makes nougatine, sablés and guimauve, along with gaufres artisanales when something warm is wanted alongside. A box of biscuits is also the practical way to take the island house home without racing a melting cone back down the quay.