Hello!
It’s just AMAZING what blue sky and sunshine can do for your mood! So – blogesta’s, I am BACK into the swing of things once more! (Not that I was ever “out” of the swing of things – but I did need a respite yesterday, that’s for sure, and many, many thanks to Robert for writing down his thoughts, as they gave me an impetus to resume this morning!
Up this morning about 7 am and, after showering, we headed out about 8:30 am looking for breakfast. The sky was crystal clear and blue, and the sun was shining away! Can I tell you -- no, I guess I already did – it was beautiful out! Also, even though the temperature was approximately what it had been in Lyon, it just FELTwarmer! Before we found breakfast, though, we found an open Casino supermarket so thought we’d drop in and look around! We were able to get our basics purchased fairly quickly – large bottles of water, raspberry jam (without which a croissant or pain-au-chocolat just isn’t complete!) as well as paper towels (people don’t seem to consider these as essential as we do!), orange juice and a couple of bottles of red wine. Then all we needed to find were croissants, and R found a very nice boulangerie in Carnac-Ville. Back to the flat to transport everything upstairs, and voila, we were in business!
View of our block Me with our Peugeot Sea view WAY in the distance!
Our agenda for today was to look at the Neolithic remains in the Carnac area – and wow, they are quite literally all over the place! Here in Carnac, most of the huge stones are known as “the alignments,” and they run for probably 2-3 miles along the highway. We started with the Maison des Megalithes (House of Megaliths), which has an excellent film as well as books, maps and general information about the megaliths in this particular area. We started at Le Menec, which morphed into the Alignements de Kermario and ending in the Alignements de Kerlescan. And there are literally thousands of huge boulders – in lines radiating from southwest to northeast. There is a great tower up which you can climb to take photos of the surrounding area, and there are areas where you can quite literally walk right up to the stones, something like the very first time I saw Stonehenge (talk about dark ages) when there wasn’t even a fence around them! (I’m talking mid-1970’s here!). There is some interesting signage posted in the area by the group calling themselves something like “Free Menhirs” club.
Apparently at one point in the late 1990’s and again in the early 2000’s, “someone” decided that the objects weren’t being protected properly, and, without voter or even local population input, tried to create their own “Megalith-Disneystyle” – but when word got out, there was a tremendous hue and cry against it by the townspeople, and “they” (the unknown proponents) were foiled in their plans to change the landscape. The townfolk are still together, though, and on the watch for any type of spoiling of the megaliths, which I think is a really great thing – not spoiling them, I mean!
Breakfast! COLD at an inlet in Carnac But still beautiful!
Then, we visited the Tumulus de Kercado – which was the highlight of our day! (And, of course, the flashlights we had brought specifically for this purpose, were safe back at the apartment – thank heaven for iPhone flashlights!!). Tumuli are generally known as burial places of one or more leaders of a group, and this one was amazing! Rough Guide calls it: “A massive burial mound of Neolithic chieftain dated from about 3800 BC.” It is approximately 75 feet in diameter and 15 feet tall, and is on private property, but open to the public, and there were actually three other people there before us! Crawling through the small opening and then into the larger interior room where we were able to stand up – wow! Nothing really like it, when you consider its age! R was able, with the help of our two iPhone flashlights to take some interior photos. It was incredible! (How many times have I said that?).
Locmariaquer at low tide Lovely small town R loved this sign!
From there, we decided that we would try and find some lunch, as it was getting a bit late. And, even though we tried several places, either they were full, or required reservations – or they weren’t even open! I need to say that this area – especially with the wonderful coastline – is definitely a summery kind of place! But right now, almost everything in closed. Even most of the local tourist information offices we saw weren’t even OPEN at this time of year, and we drove through small villages where we never saw a person at all – let alone groups of people! We finally decided that we would stop at the grocery store and pick up a few additions and just have lunch at the apartment! This worked out very well, but we have decided that we are going to have to make reservations each evening if we hope to get any dinner! Tonight, for instance, we are returning to last night’s take-out pizza place, but hope to eat inside this time! There are a few large hotels in the area, which (hopefully!) have dining rooms, so we will definitely start there.
Interesting side note: Driving around, we noticed that, on many of the many of the road signs, place names are given in both French and Breton, which is reminiscent of what we saw years ago in Wales. It seems that the stitching together of smaller states to form nation states centuries ago isn’t as tight as we thought.
We had had some plans for things to see after our late lunch, but honesty compels me to admit that I sat town on the couch (we had the window open because the apartment was warm from the afternoon sun) and the next thing I knew, I had missed an hour somewhere … found Robert napping in the bedroom, and joined him there … for yet another hour! Don’t know where the time goes, but it is passing by quickly! So, more things to discover tomorrow!
Much love & more later!
m
xxx
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