Tuesday 3rd November

We went to Port Louis Monday morning after a quick shop round Lidls on the way. We also tried grabbing a bit of McDonalds wifi but couldn’t get on so there could be a big lump of blogs arriving all in one go.

So why Port Louis? Other than a beach front aire with all the services including electricity no reason whatsoever. We didn’t fancy visiting L’Orient, apparently it received a good pounding from the allies during the war so there was little of any historical interest and “we” don’t like shops.

Port Louis was founded by King Louis XIII in the 17th Century. It was designed as a royal village, somewhere he could get away from all the stress of palace life. In around 1840 a defensive wall was built along the fore shore stretching for over a kilometre.

Just over the water you can just catch a glimpse of L’Orient which by then was becoming an important naval base.

Here is a clue to tomorrows destination!

Tuesday morning and this is the view through Frankies front window. It has rained during the night and is looking very glum, not really the weather we were hoping for.

Did you guess right? As you can see, the clouds cleared and we had a lovely walk through the standing stones. This photo was taken on the way back so some photos do show some overcast skies.

Quick history lesson first, and then lots of pictures. The stones at Carnac were erected in the Neolithic age, roughly 5 to 7 thousand years ago by the local farmers. Their purpose is unknown, they could be territorial markers or collective tombs, some theories suggest astronomical clocks or earthquake detectors but no one theory is wholly convincing.

There are Neolithic remnants all over the landscape, but here the vast number of stones is staggering. From one end to the other is a good 4km and it is well worth doing it, especially on the 3rd November in the sunshine when there is nobody, and we mean nobody, about, which is staggering in itself since it is a National Monument.

This one looked like it was leaning over a bit. At this time of year parts of the site are open to visitors, whilst other parts are being grazed by sheep. During the summer all of the stones are out of bounds.

I’m no expert but it seems obvious to me that these stones are marking out chariot racing tracks.

This stone was off to one side of the main alignment of stones. It’s called the Geant du Manio and is about 6m high.

This structure is called a dolmen and is a collective tomb.

Carnac is another one of those places that we’ve wanted to visit in the past but somehow missed.

We’ve moved along the Brittany cost to a town called Damgan. It has a large aire hidden from the sea by a large sand dune. It must be a very popular place because the first two nights are €7.50 each and then it goes up to €12 per night, still far cheaper than a campsite but there is no electric, no wifi, no telephone signal and it has started raining. We’re moving along tomorrow, possibly reaching another one of our “wish we’d gone there” places.