On a sunny morning, St Malo in Brittany is a pretty nice place to be - especially when you're on a mission and away from the computer.

One of the "backgrounders" to my job as the only civilian judge on next year's Roux Scholarship panel was to visit the 2006 scholar while he is doing his stint at Les Maisons de Bricourt - Olivier Roellinger's 3 star Michelin establishment in Cancale. Pravin Sharma, this year's Roux scholar, is a charming young man who usually cooks at Silk (the restaurant in the Courthouse Kempinski hotel in Soho). He loves spices - so his winning a "stage" with Roellinger was a perfect fit. 

Of all the French Michelin three star chefs, this passionate Breton my be the most open-minded. He starts with local produce (80% of his menu is fish) and then adds the kind of bold spices that were commonplace when St Malo was a great commercial port trading with the Indies.

It was a joy to eat with Alain Roux (head chef at his father's little place the Waterside) and every dish got the kind of concentrated scrutiny it deserved. The food was excellent, with well balanced flavours and some interesting combinations. The baby lobster in a sauce which combined rice vinegar and peppers with a whiff of cocoa was particularly fine; and the seabass in a sharp lemon sauce perfumed with an elderberry oil was also notable. Alain observed that French people eat first with their noses - and you have to admit he may have a point; you rarely see Brits sniffing a plateful or pausing a fork on the way to the mouth to enjoy the aroma. We will all have to buck up.

Before the grand bouffe in Cancale, we route marched through St Malo until we found the market at Rocabey. It was a small market, but glorious compared with anything London has to offer - up to and including Borough Market. 30 oysters for 10 euros; cepes for 36 euros a kilo; huge glossy chestnuts; fabulous cheese and charcuterie; and at the butchery counter a large, pink calf's head. Food is so much more important in France.

And the dogs? Ordure everywhere. Pavements littered in the stuff. How is it that a cultured nation like the French cannot be bothered to make their dogs (of which there are a great many) shit in the gutter? Judging by the amount of smearage they don't mind treading in it either. Great for food but crap for pedestrians.