Breton road sign in French and Celtic, above.

 

And now for the fourth and final installment! Remember this map?

 

We are now heading from the northern Breton city of Dinard to the city of Carnac, just west of Vannes. Carnac is a beach town (we never saw the beach) in what is the Gulf of the Morbihan. It has numerous islands, which are all inhabited. These islands are homes to artists (who often live in communes) and folks with second, or vacation, homes. Here’s another map, of the Gulf of the Morbihan:

 

And the islands look like this:

 

 

 

But anyway, more about the gulf later. Part of our attraction to Carnac was to see these:

 

 

 

These are the Carnac alignments, megaliths that were placed there some 6,000 years ago. The source of the rock is no mystery – the granite is plentiful in the area – but the significance and purpose are completely unknown. The megaliths are placed in straight lines and this particular alignment (series of megaliths) go on for 2 miles. There is a pattern to them but they do not line up with anything astronomical or geographical, as far as can be determined. There are also lots of dolmen (stacked rocks). Most of them look like this:

 

But originally they were covered with smaller stones and then earth, like this (you can see the granite slabs that form the entry):

 

No one knows what the dolmen were used for –  most experts believe they were burial chambers. No bones have ever been found in one until one was excavated in the 19th/20th century and an entire skeleton was found inside, however, the bones disappeared soon thereafter and so the mystery remains.

 

We saw a lot of those megaliths as they are everywhere: on the side of the road, in farmer’s fields, next to houses, etc. There are over fifteen thousand of these things in Brittany. It’s not permitted to move them, so people built, or farmed, beside them.

 

We caught the farmer’s market in Carnac and it was HUGE. Here are a couple of quick shots of some of the stalls. I was too shy to get better photos.

 

A sausage vendor, with loads of options.  I like how he’s smoking a ciggy next to the stand. Not something you would see in the Bay Area.

One of the things we loved about Brittany was all the neat little villages and houses. Most houses in Brittany look like this:

 

…which is gorgeous – hydrangeas and geraniums abound in France – but really, this could be anywhere in France. What was fun to see were the old Breton half-timbered houses which are very British in style:

 

Some of these houses looked a little off-kilter and were clearly leaning into the house next door. But then the houses are several hundred years old…

We then went to a cute port town attached to Vannes (a medium sized town), known as St. Goustan:

 

It was very charming and scenic with lots of narrow alleyways and cobblestone streets. But one of it’s main claims to fame is that Benjamin Franklin stayed here when he arrived from the Colonies looking for French assistance in the revolution. In fact, he stayed just a few houses away from the main square, pictured above (it likely looked pretty much the same, although the crepes were probably better back then).

 

Remember how it was a bit overcast and drizzly in the first pictures around the megaliths? We were hoping for a sunny day to go explore the Gulf of the Morbihan. We had hoped to rent a small boat or some kayaks but that option does not exist there! Instead you can take ferries to the different islands. I guess the residents don’t want random tourists showing up on their lawns.  Well, on our last day, the sun was out and it was HOT – 90 degrees hot. So we decided to go to the Ile Aux Moines, mainly because it’s a bit bigger than the other islands and has a bit of a town. In the first picture we are waiting for a ferry to take us to the island. You can see how close it is – it’s the island directly behind Lena. In the distance is another island that we didn’t get to.

This is the harbor of Ile Aux Moines

The ferry and another picture of the harbor

 

 

So we rented bikes and jetted off (with a quick stop for lunch at a café in the town center – the smallest town center ever). Nobody wears bicycle helmets in France, I guess. They didn’t have them at the bike shop and we seldom saw a bicyclist in Paris wearing one.

 

The island is only about 5 miles long and fairly flat but it was 90 degrees and sweltering! We were missing the cool drizzle of just two days before… There really wasn’t much to see. Rob and Cole did see a dolmen as there a few of them on the various islands. It was just fun to bop along a French island on bikes and grab an ice cream.

Although there were many cute houses, some with thatched roofs:

 

 

And that was our trip! The next day we caught a train back to Paris and spent the night at an airport hotel before catching a morning flight home.  It really is amazing how much one can do and see in only 12 days. Thanks for reading!