VILLERS-SUR-MER (14 Calvados, Normandie - see map), a pleasant seaside resort on the Côte Fleurie, and annnually celebrates the Fête de la Coquille Saint Jacques, a regional speciality, and organises a big market selling Coquilles St-Jacques, seafood, local products – all in a festive atmosphere and with a different foreign country invited to participate each year - this year it is Belgium - and don't snigger, because in terms of gastronomy the Belgians know their stuff! - this year the festival takes place on 28 and 29 October 2006. As the tourist office says "Shells by thousands, big market of the scallop,d emonstrations and tastings of receipts (recipes) of scallops, Parade of the brotherhoods, enthronements and maritime songs" - all very French!!
There is also a summer rail service until early October (which runs from Dives/Cabourg to Deaville/Trouville via Villers-sur-Mer (with onwards connections to Paris) which runs through the "bocage" - the rolling Normandy countryside.
Villers-sur-Mer is twinned with Wickham in the UK.
For more info on Villers-sur-mer see www.villers-sur-mer.fr/
