Roches aux Fees

Rocks of Fairies, view from front
 

Entry...high enough to walk in...six abreast!
 
Interior
 
Viewfrom rear Simply the biggest stones I have yet seen in a structure of this type...

Quotidien Neolithique

Megalithic festival; alas, the rain prevented us from attending; besides, we figured the mastodon meat was probably not fresh
 
The megalithic village; very instructive

Sign explaining the extraction of megaliths
 
Extraction interrupted, c. 5,000 years ago
 
Neolithic Vicki and Rebecca
 
The Long House, only partially built, to expose design; sitting in the original post-holes found on the site in 1989

Monteneuf

Megaliths at Monteneuf, a site discovered only in 1979
 
More
 
Still more
 
Explanation
 
45 tons

Saturday we awoke to typical Bretagne rain. Mist, light rain, then heavy rain, then light rain. And fog. The Festival organizers could not have been pleased. Nor were we. We waited as long as we could, till after lunch, then toured the site and the reconstructed neolithic village.

Monteneuf is of great interest. It was apparently a neolithic quarry, a huge out-cropping of schist, from which our ancestors were pulling megaliths and carting them off. Some 400 have been found since the site was discovered (after a forest fire) in 1979. Three were found standing, and some three dozen others have been restored to their original sites. One is more than 5 meters tall and weighs 45 tons, more than a fully-loaded 18-wheeler.

The neolithic village conveys much interesting information about everyday neolithic life, and one of the buildings is sited on original post-holes. Among demonstrations we could not stay for were how the stone were split apart, how they were moved (sometimes great distances), how they were erected, etc.

We had to get back to CDG to pick Rachel up Sunday morning, and so we drove on easterly to Chateaubriant, and our last site of the day, at Esse, the Roche aux Fees, the Rock of Fairies, which has to be one of the largest and grandest of all passage graves/allee couvertes we have seen. Over the millennia, the tumulus has worn away, leaving only the huge stones. None are carved, as at Gavirinis, but they are huge, larger than any others we have seen. We drove on into the night and rain, arriving at CDG after midnight.

Quimper

Quimper, a gorgeous old city, flowers everywhere
 
The Saint-Corentin cathedral in Quimper
 
The nave is headed east; the choir, built on
foundations of the former church, east-by-northeast

Cathedral spires on a beautiful day
 
Half-timbered structures everywhere
 
In the square, a great voice

Raz-Ma-Taz

Friday morning we hiked the couple km out to the Point, enjoying the early morning sights to ourselves. The trail was lined with blackberry bushes, still a bit early, but some ripe, so we helped ourselves. So many times we have stopped on a trail to pick raspberries, blackberries, bilberries, etc. The French pass by, most ignoring us, some few adding a disdainful “bon appetit.” Are we doing something wrong? Anyway, this morning we had the trail to ourselves, and indeed bon appetit. Vicki and I had seen Point Raz before, and many other coasts and finisterres. And Rebecca has lived on the Middle California coast, Pebble Beach and south, and so we were all a bit underwhelmed by Point Raz. Michelin says it's 3 stars, but then, well, I guess they have not been to California. Or New Zealand.

We decamped and drove back to the village of Confort-Mearliars, shopped the patisserie there and visited the parish church, a Bretagne specimen, which had caught my eye on the way in. Then we drove on to Quimper, for lunch (crepes and cidre), walking, and shopping.

Old Quimper is delightful, highlighted by flowers everywhere, half-timbered buildings, and its cathedral, a strangely but obviously misaligned Gothic of some size. It was another reminder that these enormous soaring buildings are held together by friction and gravity, and not much else, that many came down, and that those that have stayed up are indeed remarkable. Again we were blessed by a beautiful day and beautiful weather. Finally we drove of to Monteneuf, another megalithic site and the Festival Megalithique, which was to occur this weekend. We were met by its organizer, who was delighted to see Americains, and camped in the site parking lot.

Terrain at Pointe Raz

Gun emplacement; the U-boat pens at L'Orient were only a few miles away

 

View from Point Raz: more islands, more lighthouses

Blackberries, yum

 

Typical Breton church at Confort-Mearliars

Church tower

 

Hydrangeas in bloom all over Brittany

 

Carnac

Part of the Menec alignment in Carnac

More of same; the alignments, Mercario, etc., go on seemingly for miles, but are
no more intelligible for their great length and regularities

Old house at start of Menec

 

Typical Breton house in Pont-Scorff

 

Pont-Scorff Mairie

 

Gavrinis

Thursday we drove further into Brittany, to Larmor-Baden, near Carnac. Rebecca's top priority was the boat trip and visit to Gavrinis, the Isle of Goats, in the Gulf of Morbihan. We had done this in 1989. Gavinis is the home of a large tumulus and covered passage grave, large enough to walk into, lined by twenty-some beautifully carved monster-sized stones, the best in all of the Atlantic megalithic area, all neolithic, 3,000 BC or so.

The boat trip itself from Larmor-Baden was interesting. It was a beautiful sunny day, and the Gulf was genuinely crowded with boats of every description. The whole affair has been upgraded touristically. There is signage, a visitor center, and a guided tour, mostly French, but a few minutes for the English-type personnes. We pique-niqued on the island, just to add to the atmosphere.

Then we drove on to Carnac. We stopped at the Menec alignments and never got much further than them and the visitor center/gift store. Somehow, the alignments per se have never sent us—they are so inscutable—and we drove on to the artsy-fartsy town of Pont-Scorff, where we modestly simulated the local artisan economy.

Rebecca's next priority was Pointe du Raz, the Finisterre of Brittany (and France, I guess), so we drove there, at length, and camped at the RV parking lot. I love these familiar places, Carnac, Quiberon, Gulf of Morbihan, Vannes, Lorient, all the villages, etc.

Heavy traffic in the Gulf of Morbihan

Pique-niqueing on the Isle of Goats

Entrance to Gavinis

 

Plan of the interior

 

Interior, big stone on right at end, #15

The "Christianizing" of ancient monuments never ends

 

With the rising of the seas, many of Brittany's monuments are sinking or already
beneath the waves

 

To Paris, and Brittany

[August 14, near Cambridge, UK: the past two weeks have been sufficiently action-packed and internet-deprived that I have only recently started editing pix and text; I hope to post things back up to date in the next few days]

July 27 and 28 were days of driving, Monday into Hamburg and the Camping Salon, then west, through Bremen and beyond to a lay-by just west of Koln. We saw the Cathedral spires int the distance. We visited Koln in 1979, and certainly will return next year. Tuesday we continued on through Germany, Luxembourg, then into France, eschewing the peages for the blue roads (is there a book there: Blue Roads of France?), to just east of Paris.

We have done this and similar routes from the east many times, always forgetting, as we did this time, there are no aires, no campgrounds, municipal nor private, in this part of the world. Vicki has had this theory that, when all else fails, in big cities, there is always long term parking at the airport. In that we were to pick Rebecca up at noon the next day at CDG, we decided to test Vicki's theory. Indeed, the theory worked, although it was as expensive as a campground and provided no amenities. Getting out the next day, in a vehicle longer that 5 meters, proved interesting but feasible, at length, with airport parking personnel assistance (le bureaucracy).

Wednesday, the 29th, after internet at the Pullman Hotel, we met Rebecca at CDG terminal 2E. We had lunch in the camper, unpacked, got out of parking with the aforementioned difficulty, then drove into Paris (thanks, Tom), on toward Rouen, then into Brittany, and finally camped at an Aire near Rennes. En route we had the first of many pleasant supermarche experiences, stocking up for the next couple days. It is good to be back in Brittany, a place we have visited many times and love. I particularly love multiply ambiguous places and stories, and Brittany fits that bill pretty well.

Ribe; and on to Paris

Main street Ribe

Sagging Medieval wall

Inside an amber jewelry shop

Street scene

Ribe's mixed white and red brick cathedral; does not work, IMHO

On Monday the 27th we drove into Hamburg, to our old friend the Camping Salon, where we returned a couple defective items (gladly exchanged) and bought some more stuff for the camper. And then we drove on, on familiar roads through Hamburg to Bremen, then beyond, the Ruhr, camped for evening at a lay-by somewhat west of Cologne (saw the Cathedral spires in the distance). And then we drove on on the 28th, across the rest of Germany, a bit of Belgium and Luxembourg, and finally, into France, where we are parked now, at the Charles DeGaulle airport long-term lot, awaiting Rebecca's arrival on Wednesday.

Last Day in Scandinavia: Jelling and Ribe

The small Jelling stone, Gorm the Old honoring his wife The big Jelling stone, Harald Bluetooth, founder of the dynasty, honoring Gorm and Thyra, his parents Christ on the big stone Dragon Inside the 12th century church Church between the tumuli and grounds Poster of Danish royalty, from Harald to Margarethe Our last day in Scandinavia saw us visiting Jelling for the Jelling rune stones and Ribe, one of Denmark's oldest and best-preserved medieval towns. Jelling is important in that its rune stone, the big one, begins the Danes' monarchy, straight to the present Queen Margarethe, and identifies its founder as the conqueror and Christianizer Harald Bluetooth. It is a national site, and the two stones, one Harald's, one his father's (Gorm the Old, honoring his queen Thyra, “pride of Denmark”), rest beside the 12th century church, which itself sits between the two enormous 10th-century tumuli. Ribe once competed with Copenhagen, but declined when its port silted up. It is indeed well-preserved and picturesque. After skyping with Rebecca and Rachel near Ribe, we drove on and camped at a forlorn rest area in Schleswig-Holstein, 40 miles north of Hamburg.