The Bassin d'Arcachon is one of France's most productive oyster regions, and the farms are as much a visual part of the landscape as the dune or the pine forest. At low tide the shallow basin is studded with rows of oyster cages stretching toward the horizon, and the ostréiculteurs (oyster farmers) work in flat-bottomed boats that are a local design unchanged for generations.
Eating oysters here is one of the great simple pleasures of the Arcachon area. Several of the small villages on the southern shore — La Teste itself has a few, and neighbouring Cap Ferret has more — have cabin-restaurants where you sit on picnic tables on the waterfront, drink crisp Muscadet or Entre-Deux-Mers, and work through a dozen or two with bread and butter. The oysters are flat-shelled (huîtres plates) or the more common Pacific deep-cupped (creuses); both varieties are farmed here.
The season runs year-round, but the classic French advice to eat oysters only in months containing an "R" (avoiding the summer spawning season) still holds for the local flat variety. In practice, the creuses are eaten all year. Prices are remarkably low compared to what you would pay for the same oysters in Paris.