Like a few rays of sunshine peaking through the sea spray, surfer Mélissa Cardenas is bringing a little joy to your post-beach meal breaks with her new wave café. And the cool seaside town of Soulac-sur-Mer is taking note! From breakfast through apéro hour, friends pass through and squat the sidewalk patio or the second-hand dining room (a renovated sideboard, a mint green counter, French school chairs) for lunch by the sea. The other day, we had a lovely pesco-vegetarian heavy meal to spice up this Indian summer day: baba ganoush tickled by pickled onions; XXL sobrasada which you spoon onto supernatural bread from the nearby bakery Montréal-sur-Mer; meagre ceviche under a pepper-coriander infusion; roasted cherry tomatoes over a bed of cumin-spiced yogurt with pistachio pesto; before a divine fig tart with lime zest. In a rush to catch your next surf session? The house also serves quick, easy lunches like sandwiches filled with carrots, labneh and sun-dried tomatoes, or the classic combo of terrine and cornichons. // Raymond Boivin

FEELING THIRSTY? Juice, beer, tea and a lovely selection of wine that speaks the natural dialect fluently: an Ardèche red from Jocelyne and Gérald Oustric (€5.50 a glass), or a white from Les Deux Terres (€23 a bottle), a rosé from the Languedoc produced by Catherine Bernard in collaboration with Le Vin des Potes (€35)…
PRICE: Breakfast €4-6, plates €5-13, sandwiches €7-8, kid’s option €11.