Marina O' Loughlin Eats La Rochelle

This compact city, set on the Bay of Biscay on France’s Atlantic coast, packs an astonishing array of places to eat and drink into a small area. Our columnist recommends her favourites

- Marina O' Loughlin

If any small city in the UAE was blessed with as many restaurants as La Rochelle, it would become a place of fevered foodie pilgrimage. Here, streets bristle with bistro after bistro, brasseries, bars and many, many seafood specialists. The locals deal with this bounty with a small so-what shrug: why wouldn’t we? But for us, it would be as though Al Ain suddenly sprouted as many places to eat out as central Dubai.

We’re staying at the traditionally comfortable Hotel Champlain (hotelchamplain.com), perfect for exploring the ancient, porticoed streets. How to choose from La Ville Blanche’s riches? There’s everything from Michelin stars to converted boats selling fried seafood by the waterfront. The most heavily populated restaurant areas, by the Vieux Port, is dominated by two imposing medieval towers, Tour Saint-Nicholas and Tour de la Chaîne.

Of the three quaysides, two appear to be entirely dedicated to eating and drinking. As is rue St Jean du Pérot, where we’re seduced by the famous Ernest le Glacier (ernest-leglacier.com). We wallow in caramel ice cream spiked with local salt while watching the nautical life. The beloved André (barandre.com)is a kitsch Disneyland of a fish restaurant (if they can drape it with nets, anchors and glass floats, they will), but a bit more our speed, across the inlet on rue Saint-Nicolas, is cool little cooperative restaurant Prao (