The French Assert Their World Dominance By Endorsing Their Own Seafood Want to make sure people take you seriously? Slap "moules de bouchot de la baie de Mont Saint Michel AOC" on any mussel not musselled in Mont St Michel bay. You can imagine what kind of thunderclap this was to the rest of the mussel industry. "I have great mussels, so why should I be penalized while they get the government seal of approval? No one will want to buy my mussels if the French government doesn't tell them they should," said Francois LePew. "You saw what kind of effect it had on the world when the French government mandated that 25% of the music played on the radio must be French artists. Motown almost went out of business!" You can bet this issue isn't going away any time soon. A resurgent militance about mussels in France is going to have a ripple effect throughout Europe. Politicians are concerned that Russians and Germans will begin mobilizing their own seafood legislation. Grown in the border between the regions of Brittany and lower Normandy, this isn't the first time culinary war has been declared over them: Yes, those are Allied soldiers invading Normandy to free Mont St. Michel mussels over 60 years ago. The Germans sure knew their seafood.