Locmariaquer / Nantes

We finished up our Brittany visit with a stop in nearby Locmariaquer to see some of the area's megaliths. The main sights were the Broken Menhir of Er Grah, the Table de Marchand dolmen and the Er-Grah tumulus.

It's believed that the menhir was erected around 4700 BC and collapsed around 4000 BC (likely due to an earthquake). Given the menhir's original size (nearly 21 meters high and weighing 280 tons), there is no consensus on how the menhir was tranported to / erected on the site. What is known, however, is that the massive block was transported from an area a couple of kilometers away and is the largest known block of stone erected by Neolithic man.

The Table de Marchand dolmen / tumulus was constructed subsequent to the erection of the menhir. This is known due to the fact that the massive capstone is actually a fragment of the broken menhir. Interestingly, the same is true for the capstone of the dolmen from Gavrinis (the nearby island that we visited on Monday).

The Er-Grah tumulus is a vast stone construction (140 meters long) that was erected over a couple millenia from around 5000 BC to 3300 BC.

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On our way back to the airport we stopped in the city center of Nantes for lunch. The restaurant that we ate at -- La Cigalle -- was very nice and is known for its decor and fresh seafood.

While walking back to the car we walked through a plaza that offered a view of (part of) the city's cathedral. Unfortunately, we didn't have any time to further explore the city as we had to head to the airport to catch our flight back to Geneva.

Belle-Île

Today we took a day trip to Belle-Île, Brittany's largest island, which is about an hour-long ferry ride from nearby Quiberon. Given the beautiful weather, we decided that we'd rent bikes on the island and spend the day exploring it.

The initial part of the ride took us through the island's inland area, which for the most part has been deforested over the years and been replaced by farms.

Our first stop was Sauzon, one of the island's two main ports (the other being Le Palais, where we disembarked). We arrived at low tide, which resulted in what was effectively a dry dock.

Some of the boats appeared to be floating, as their keels were stuck in the thick mud.

Here's a nice view of the coast just outside Sauzon, where we stopped for a break.

Next we headed to the northeast point of the island -- Îles des Poulains -- where we saw one of the island's lighthouses (small building on right of photo).

The surrounding landscapes were very nice.

The next part of our journey took us by a number of farms, with lots of cows, horses, donkeys, sheep and goats. The cow in this photo didn't seem particularly pleased with our arrival during mealtime.

After making it back to the coast, we came across a bay where there were a number of people swimming and a couple others surfing. At this point we tried to take a shortcut by ignoring the "no bikes allowed" sign and following a pedestrian trail instead. This backfired terribly, as we ended up hauling our bikes through narrow switchbacks and deep sand.

Our final stop of the day was a bluff on the western edge of the island. The area served as inspiration to Claude Monet for a number of his paintings, including this one:

The following are my photo recreations, the second of which required me to climb down the bluff.

We definitely saved the best spot for last, as this area was easily my favorite. I really liked the landscapes with the steep cliffs and rocks shooting out of the sea.

We also passed another lighthouse that allowed for a nice photo with the colorful brush in the foreground.

By this point it was getting late, so we had to bike back to the port where we disembarked. Fortunately, we just had to traverse the narrow width of the island, rather than following the roundabout path that we took on our tour.

Along the way, we passed a small village with some houses that were typical to the island.

Here's a photo of the harbor, which I took while waiting for ferry back to Quiberon.

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For dinner we went to a local creperie in Carnac. While we were exhausted from our day in Belle-Île, we wanted to make the most of our final night in Brittany with some local fare.

Carnac

 

For the balance of the trip we're staying in Carnac, a small coastal town about an hour north of La Baule on the Bay of Quiberon. The area is known for its beaches as well as its megalithic sites (think Stonehenge), which date back to around 3300 BC.

This morning we visited some of the megalithic sites and they were pretty interesting. The more that you think about them, the more questions they raise in terms of how they were built and their intended purpose. Add in the fact that they were erected over 5,000 years ago and they get even more perplexing.

The following are some sites that reflect "alignments" -- i.e., rows of stones erected at regular intervals. According to one local legend, the stones reflect a Roman legion that was turned to stone by Merlin.

The sites also include a number of dolmen -- tomb-like structures that consists of three or more upright stones that support a flat horizontal "capstone".

There were also a few tumuli -- raised stone / earth structures that cover graves and are often constructed as part of dolmen.

I liked the following road, which we had to take in order to get to the tumulus above.

The following tumulus is on an island not far from Carnac. The stones on the interior that formed the dolmen were massive and raised more questions regarding how something like this could have been built so long ago.

After visiting the megalithic sites we drove to Auray, a town that's important from the perspective of American history. It's where Benjamin Franklin landed in 1776 while seeking military support from the French during the War of Independence.

Here are some pictures that I took during the drive back to Carnac. The first is a farmhouse that I liked and the second is the view of a nearby town from a bridge that we crossed.

We spent the balance of the afternoon on the beach in Carnac in front of our hotel. Luck was on our side with respect to the weather, as it really felt like a summer day yet there was hardly anyone around.

Guérande

Today we visited Guérande, a medieval city not far from La Baule that is known for its well-preserved 15th-century ramparts. The main reason for the visit was a wedding-related lunch, but we also took the opportunity to tour the city a bit.

We ate at a nice creperie that was hidden along one of the city's narrow cobblestone streets. The food was excellent, with countless options of both crêpes salées (savory) and crêpes sucrées (sweet).

The following tricycle was parked outside the restaurant and I thought it would make for a nice picture. It looks a bit like a postcard, right?

One of the main sights in Guérande is St. Aubin's church, which dates back to the 15th century and is known for its gothic architecture.

After walking around Guérande for a bit, we drove through the area's salt marshes on the way to Le Croisic. Apparently, roughly 15,000 tons of salt are harvested in the area every year, including 300 tons of fleur du sel.

Le Crosic is a small fishing fishing town on the Guérande peninsula. We unfortunately didn't have a lot of time to explore, but we were able to walk around the waterfront for a bit.

And here is a nice church that we passed by.

We spent the balance of the day on the road, as we had to head back to Nantes to pick up a rental car and then drive to our next destination -- Carnac. And by the time that we arrived it was after 10pm, so we had a good excuse to call it a night.

Le Mariage

Today we attended Cecile and Yvain's wedding, which took place at the city hall in Saint Nazaire. Technically, it was the "civil" wedding; the religious wedding is next May and will be in the Jura region of France where Emilie and Cecile grew up.

It turns out that there are many weddings performed at the City Hall each Saturday. As such, once the wedding's scheduled time arrived we were quickly ushered into the main room used for ceremonies. Here's a shot of Cecile and Emilie waiting for everything to begin.

The ceremony was very quick, highlighting the efficiency required to hold multiple weddings on the same day. It consisted primarily of a speech by the Deputy Mayor, the formal "I do" exchange, and signatures by the bride, groom and two witnesses on the marriage documentation. I believe I took this picture once everything was official.

After the wedding we went to Yvain's parents' house for the reception. And for the next six hours or so we ate... and ate... and ate. The dining area was nicely decorated and the food was excellent, consisting of Brittany region staples such as oysters, shrimp and lobster.

After the marathon lunch we headed down to the coast to walk around for a bit and prevent the full onset of food comas. It was very scenic and reminded me of the rocky coastline in parts of California.

We got back to the hotel around sunset and had a nice view as the sun went down. There were some people riding horses along the beach, which was interesting to see as that's prohibited at the beaches where I grew up.