Seafood and a lot of inshore fisheries can be considered as extensions of the terroir notion, since the seabed that forms the continental shelf is contiguous with the land that supports the more readily accessible products of a terroir. By the same token, the inshore waters are fed by the rivers that cross the landscape.

This line of thought can be readily applied to species like scallops or oysters. (here is an earlier article : http://www.inside-isigny.com/index.php/recipes/main-courses/fish/ ) Isigny Sainte-Mère chef Ivan Vautier combines local scallops, for which Normandy is famous, with the Mimolette hard cheese made at Sainte Mère, just a few miles from the sea. Here is a link to one of his many Isigny Sainte-Mere recipes: http://www.isigny-ste-mere.com/EN/r_entrees.php?id_type_recette=1&numero=14

The fishing port Grandcamp-Maisy enjoys a scallop festival over the first weekend of December. This event is a fairly recent addition to another autumnal scallop festival that marks the reopening of the fishery in October.

While the programme for such events usually includes fishermen’s songs and seafood tastings, there are also opportunities to buy directly from the fishermen who drag the scallops up from their beds in the Baie de Seine. The festival at the celebrated scallop port, Port-en-Bessin, has been going since 2004 and this year admitted members of the public to the fish auction hall.

As with all terroirs, geology can still be applied underwater: so the scallop’s favourite feeding grounds are a mixture of sand and clay on the seabed, up to 80 metres below the surface. The characteristic locations will be determined by the availability of food – microscopic particles in suspension, for a scallop.