Where to eat Huîtres de Bouzigues in Montpellier: 3 editor picks

The Bouzigues oyster is grown on ropes hung from wooden tables in the Étang de Thau, a tideless lagoon half an hour west of the city. Permanent immersion makes the shell thin and the meat unusually fleshy.

Oyster culture on the Thau lagoon is barely more than a century old, but it now turns out around 12,000 tonnes a year from some 600 conchylicole holdings between Bouzigues, Mèze and Marseillan. Because the lagoon has no tide, the oysters hang permanently underwater rather than being alternately covered and exposed, which is why they grow fast and fill their shells. Some producers exondate their oysters, lifting them clear of the water on a cycle to harden the shell and firm the flesh. Montpellier eats them without any of the ritual of an Atlantic oyster bar: a dozen on ice at a market counter, a glass of Picpoul, bread and butter, standing up.