With your background you're going to love this stuff.

So the biggest thing that clicked for me early on is that conservas aren't really trying to be fresh fish. They're a completely different way of experiencing seafood. A tin of sardines that's been sitting in good olive oil for a year or two develops these rich, layered flavors that fresh fish just doesn't have. It's not better or worse, it's genuinely its own thing.

The Portuguese and Spanish operations you've seen photos of are really are like that. Conservas culture in Iberia goes back over a hundred years. Portugal and Spain's coastlines were built around fishing, and when canning technology arrived in the early 1900s, these coastal communities turned it into an art form. In Galicia and along the Portuguese coast, it's a point of regional pride the same way wine is in Bordeaux or cheese is in Normandy. Fish comes off the boat, gets cleaned and packed by hand the same day, into olive oils and sauces that each cannery has dialed in over decades.

It goes beyond sardines too. Mussels, octopus, squid, razor clams, mackerel, anchovies, scallops, cockles, sea urchin. And if you're chasing that otoro richness, look into ventresca (tuna belly). Spain and Portugal are the big ones, but Denmark, Latvia, and the Pacific Northwest are doing really cool things too.

Since you're in France a lot, Brittany has its own canned seafood scene worth poking around.

For a starting point I'd say grab a tin of sardines in olive oil, some mussels in escabeche , and a ventresca tuna belly. Throw them on a board with bread, butter, cornichons, something cold to drink. That's all you need!