I haven’t tasted enough oysters to make a confident claim of supremacy for these ones, but they’re certainly as good as any others I’ve ever had, and better than many. The brine is quite salty compared to some others, and the flesh is sweeter. 
They come from Noirmoutier, and are sold by their producteurs, the Pineau family, in the Boulevard des Américains market Tuesday mornings in Nantes. 
That’s Françoise Pineau in the picture, who nicely answered the questions I often had about her products. My weekly ritual for a while now has been to get a dozen and open them up for lunch right away (thanks to Pierre for teaching me how to open them!). The salicornes that you can see in the front of the photo are also delicious, as are the mussels, the coques, and the famous Noirmoutier potatoes. I’m looking forward to tasting other oysters elsewhere, which will certainly have their own merits – the notion of “best” here is ultimately silly, of course – but I know I’ll now always have these as a référence.
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