The sweet wheat-flour crêpe folded over salted-butter caramel is Brittany's dessert default, thin and lacy under a caramel darkened almost to bitterness and cut with fleur de sel.
Where to eat it: 6 restaurants across 2 cities.
Salted butter is the Breton constant, the result of a medieval salt-tax exemption that left the region salting its butter long after the rest of France stopped. Caramel au beurre salé as a confection is far younger, developed in Quiberon in the 1970s and spread across Brittany within a generation, and it took over the sweet crêpe almost completely. The wheat-flour crêpe itself is the sweet counterpart to the buckwheat galette, and in a Rennes crêperie the two arrive in that order: galette first, crêpe second, cider throughout. A good caramel is cooked to the edge of catching, then loosened with cream and beaten with salted butter until it pours thickly rather than runs.
Tours, tastings and classes from the cities on this page, bookable on GetYourGuide.
Guided tour · 3 hours
Join us on this fantastic food tour to taste and learn everything you've ever wanted to know about French gastronomy. Savory and sweet specialities...
Day trip · 4 - 4.5 hours
Discover St-Emilion on a guided village tour, followed by a guided visit and tasting of 3-4 wines with a French aperitif platter at a Grand Cru...
Day trip · 4 hours
Discover Southern Beaujolais on a wine tour from Lyon which will show the highlights of this beautiful region. Learn about the history and wine...
Common allergens: Gluten, Eggs, Dairy
Tip from the editors. Warm the cream before it hits the caramel. Cold cream drops the temperature so fast that the sugar sets into a lump you cannot rescue.
Running since 1976 and rebuilt for its fortieth birthday, Heb Ken grinds through galettes at lunch and turns into a tea room every afternoon.
SignatureBuckwheat galettes, Salted butter caramel crêpes, Gâteau nantais
TipNo reservations are taken, so the queue outside at 12:30 is normal; the homemade chocolate spread crêpe is the one regulars order.
The €8 midday formule at Ker Breizh buys a savoury galette, a sweet crêpe and cider or coffee, on organic Breton flour and Vendée free-range eggs.
Signature€8 lunch formule, Scallop galette, Salted butter caramel crêpe
TipReserve even at lunch, the room is small and fills; the house cider is made for them near Quimper under the Grain de Pomme label.
Œuf turns its organic buckwheat crêperie on Rue de Saint-Malo in Rennes into a Breton brunch every Sunday, €24 with a crêpe cake that changes weekly.
OrderThe all-buckwheat Breton brunch with the weekly crêpe cake
TipSunday runs in two sittings at 11:45 and 13:45 at €24 a head; book, it is the city's only galette-first brunch.
La Gavotte holds the crêperie corner of Rue Saint-Georges in Rennes, open seven days with an andouille, apple and camembert galette as its calling card.
OrderThe Guémené andouille galette with apples, camembert and mustard ice cream
La Crêperie du Thabor sits by the park gates on Rue Saint-Melaine in Rennes, galettes and sweet crêpes with a candy bar that keeps student budgets happy.
TryGalettes and candy-bar crêpes
TipPricing is pitched at the student quarter; a savoury galette and a candy-bar crêpe stays under €20.
Bretone serves buckwheat galettes in the mosaic-tiled former home of the Odorico family in Rennes, a Fooding-listed crêperie with a pastel rooftop patio.
OrderThe grilled Guémené andouille galette with caramelised onions
More cities are in research. Want crêpe au caramel au beurre salé covered somewhere specific? Tell us where you want to eat.
