Prehistoire en Carnac

Bonsoir!  Aujourd'hui nous avons roulé à Carnac, vu des alignements et visité le Musée Prehistoire.  We walked down by the salt marshes to the plage, and are now in our tiny hotel room, massaging our feet.

 Although my French is coming back quickly, I have a bit more trouble down here in Bretagne, where the signs are listed in both Francais and Bretagne.  I have trouble understanding what is said to me.

After we posted our blog last night, we went down to the Michelin starred restaurant and blew the food budget.  We went for the wine pairings, which included three glasses of the best wine I have ever had, and a glass of champagne.  The thing about wine pairings is that they go with the courses, and there were five of them.  In order to have the correct wine with the food, one needs to keep up, and this was a lot more than I usually drink -- in a month!  As a result, Ian and I were both a little more relaxed than is good for us, and our apologies to those we attempted to email in the middle of dinner:  Aunt Kathleen and Jessica.  The food was incroyable, and included charcuterie et fromage, a mousse of peas and mint, raw scallops in mango sauce, pate de foie gras (not at all what I had imagined, sea bass (bar) half smoked and served on pastry filled with shallots sautéed in rose wine, venison (cerf) with choux et plus pate, and pineapple served as a wafer, as a sauce for panne cotta, and as the raw fruit chopped with chilis.  Aside from being unable to take my own boots off, I regret nothing!!



We awoke this morning feeling no ill effects in spite of richly deserving them, and drove the hour or so to Carnac.  We found our hotel without difficulty, but is was much too early to check in, so we drove down the little peninsula to Quilberon, and saw our first alignment, which is a group of menhir stones set in rows. This one now goes into the sea, the sea having risen over the last 5000 years.  We were amazed a these stones, ranging from thigh high to just over our heads, which were moved into place without the use even of the wheel.  We keep reminding ourselves that these stones are further away from the times o Julius Caesar that Caesar is from us today -- 100 years older than Stonehenge!

Our next stop was the main event.  We drove to the Alignments de Menec, and walked a lot of the four kilometres of the monument.  In places the alignments are open, and one can walk through the stones -- at least in the off season.  Most of the alignments are closed to protect the undergrowth.

Scratching my back.

A lot of the vegetation is gorse, which can pierce through jeans and socks.  Houses and roads punctuate the alignments.

About halfway along one of the alignments, there is an old mill that one can climb and look in both directions.

After we made a couple of thwarted attempts to see a few other megaliths, we finally were successful seeing the tumulus of Kermario, which is on private land, an amazing estate.  Although the tumulus is spectacular, the walk through ivy covered woods in the dappled spring sunshine was just as pleasing.

Ian after he has come out of the tomb.

The tumulus with a megalith on the top.

After a happy afternoon of rambling, we headed off to the Musee PreHistoire at about 3:30.  This being the off season, the museum is only open from 2:00 to 5:30.  We were worried that we would not be able to get through it, or that the information would not be in English, but they gave us a wonderfully detailed booklet with English translations -- I would have bought a copy if they had t for sale.  The museum is a little gem, small, but with everything beautifully displayed and explained:

These axes were for ceremonial purposes only, and were found in tombs from the fifth Millenia BC.

 We bought sandwiches at a boulangerie, and checked into our hotel, right across from the salt marshes.  This is a really squishy little room, very plain, but the views from the widow are great,

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