Coqui Thau is a family GAEC created by Christian VILA, with his son Eric, his partner Julie and her daughter Laure who has since taken a new path with her husband by creating her own business.

Christian started fishing in 1981… clams, sea urchins, shrimps, flat oysters, mussels….It was his daily job.
In 1985, he bought two tables and started the production of oysters and started his first markets in 1987. The years go by, the family grows and from time to time, the children accompany their father on his tours and to the farmhouse.
Eric studied at the Lycée de la Mer, a management school for Laure, a passion that was born, a father who wanted to pass on his experience, it didn’t take more than that for Coqui Thau to be born….

Le Mas

The oyster work takes place in a farmhouse that we call a “mas”…
“Harvesting” is done using a barge, also known as a “bac”.
Machines help us in our work, pools are used to refine the oysters before their consumption.

Production

We work with young oysters (spat) from the natural environment and from hatcheries.
300 “baby oysters” are distributed in Pearlnets and then hung in our parks to make them pre-grow.
Two months later, they are between 2 and 3 cm long, we then stick them by three or four on ropes and put them back to push in our breeding tables.
10 to 12 months later, we can offer you, for sale or for tasting, very fine oysters.

The “Spéciale Coqui Thau”

From selected spat, the “Spéciale Coqui Thau” was born by rethinking the practices of our ancestors, the exondation (to take the oyster out of the water regularly, simulating the ocean tides).

Every fortnight, we lift the ropes for a few hours to dry the oysters.

This operation eliminates the plankton-hungry algae from its shell and improves the texture of its flesh.

Raised between the sky and the lagoon, the Spéciale Coqui Thau takes advantage of the sun to pearl its shell and the richness of the water to fill its crunchy flesh with iodised aromas.