June 30 Lorient to Carnac
Breakfast this morning was served in the tiny, ordered back garden. Although it was a bit chilly, we enjoyed this start to our day.
This was going to another big day with over 40 kms of more hills and undulations, as well as riding on some more major roads to get out of town. To give leg-weary bodies a chance, and to give ourselves a more enjoyable day, we decided to take the train to Auray and then ride 20 kms to Carnac, giving ourselves plenty of time to look at the megaliths. Could take the assembled bikes on the train which was great.
Part of the ride was on a busy road, which was undulating, but with not too many challenging hills. Once off the main road the ride became much more enjoyable. Passed a couple of sites with a number of alignments of large rocks before coming to the Kermario Alignments in a field 1200 m long and 100 m wide with 1029 menhirs (large granite rocks) in 10 rows. Nearby was the largest menhir in the region - over 6 m high. As well as the menhirs, there are dolmens which are burial mounds built of huge slabs of rock and approached by a rock-walled and roofed tunnel. They were built by placing the wall rocks in place and then filling the area in with dirt before dragging the huge roof rocks into place, and then removing the infill soil to create the room. They all date back to at least 5000 years BC.
Arriving in Carnac, we booked into a cute, ancient inn, now a B&B, called 'Chez Nous', delighted to find that we had a ground floor room.
Visited the Museum, where we admired some skeletons which are around 6500 years old, then visited the ornate church of St Cornely, completed in 1657. Paintings, naves and altars everywhere, and beautiful stained glass windows and iron work.