Previous page Next page
Thursday, March 15, 2012: Today is ravioli ... uh no. Correction: Today is menhirs. We will visit the rock alignments whether natural or man-drawn. But first, the video:


Before beginning the story, let me explain some things. Prejudices about Britain are tough: there's still raining, except when there is fog, the Bretons are alcoholics finished, they only eat salted butter and pancakes, there is a cathedral at each corner of the dirt road and more. I want to say that many things are pretty much true (slightly exaggerated) but I have almost no bad weather on the trip and it does not cross either of the whole cathedral 100m. Proof in pictures:

(This is not a cathedral, but a Calvary (the cross) and a small church, for a hamlet of 3 farms. Haha haha !)
After this little introduction to prove the lies of legends and myths that people throw on the misguided Britain (this is humor). We leave for the first Dolmen : Mane Kerionned.

Already, what is a menhir, a dolmen, a cairn and an alignment ?
We all know (almost) gauloix Asterix and his friend Obelix that make Menhir. A menhir is a standing stone vertically driven into the ground. In Europe, most were built between -4500 and -2500 years ago. Popular culture has often been associated with the Celtic menhirs (gauloix), truth is different because the menhirs existed several thousand years before the arrival of the Celts in Europe. Some stones planted in the early history (Bronze Age and Iron Age) are stelae that megalithic standing stones. The standing stones can be planted in isolation or in alignment. More rarely, several standing stones can be arranged in a circle, these are the famous ''stone circles'' (cromlec'h) as Er Lannic. The menhir can be cut (column-shaped, almond, stone anthropomorphic (human-like one), etc..) Or have been planted as is, more or less crude (which is usually the case ).

A dolmen is a prehistoric megalithic construction consisting of one or several large slabs of stone cover (tables) placed on vertical stones that serve as feet (orthostats). The whole was originally covered, maintained and protected by a pile of stones, pebbles and earth named mounds. Dolmens are usually monuments sheltered from having collective graves (much like the family tombs).

A cairn is a pile of artificial stones. They are found mostly on the contours, bogs or on mountaintops.
They serve several functions:
-> Mark a passage through a rocky, arid or crossing a glacier,
-> Locate the top of a mountain,
-> Mark a burial site or celebrate the dead.
In addition, the cairns were used to commemorate all kinds of events: a site of battles, a place where a wagon was overturned, etc. ... They can range from simple clusters to real rickety buildings. It is customary that when a person arrives at a cairn on a hike, it adds a stone (preferably on the top) to bring him luck for the rest of the way to go. However if the cairn breaks down with the addition of the stone, it does not augur well.

Alignment is one or more parallel rows of menhirs. Capable of measuring several meters to several kilometers, alignment, to be one, must have at least three standing stones. Alignment is the most complex one in Carnac (combining alignments Menec, Kermario, the Giant of Manio, Kerlescan and Petit Menec) and extends over 4km long.


After all these explanations, we will visit within a tumulus where we can see runes carved on the rocks that make up the walls. The underground burial mound measures 10m long and 6 of its 27 pillars are runes. All dating from about -3400 years ago.

We start now towards Quiberon and the wild coast. In some places the shoreline has kept the traces of the German occupation of 1940-1944. One can still see frequently bunkers all along the coast, now lost in the weeds, brambles and gorse.




We picnic on the rocks while a gull watching us. By leaving a few small pieces of bread, he moves very suspicious. It's funny to watch him do it. Then I'll trudge a bit on the rocks with the Koala Jones.

Back on the road towards ... Carnac and its famous alignments.
You should know that Carnac covers just over 4km long and has about 4,000 menhir! However Carnac is actually an alignment of alignments. What we call the Carnac alignments are actually several alignments which are themselves aligned. In order (west to east): the Menec (1'165m x 100m, 1'099 menhirs, 11 lines), Kermario (982 menhirs in 10 lines and a dolmen), Kermaux (82 menhirs), and the quadrilateral Manio giant (tens of menhirs, and one 6.50m high), Kerlescan (540 menhirs in 13 lines of 3.5 hectares, at its end is a cromlec'h (stone circle) of 39 standing stones and finally the Petit Menec (350m long, 101 menhirs in 7 and 3 lines).
We do not know what these alignments were used, was it for astronomy, topography, or a religion? Mystery. The fact remains that archaeologists continue to search.
However, one thing we know is that it is only with wooden logs, ramps and hoists that men have higher standing stones. Some weighing several tons (300 tons for the largest of them).





Visit Carnac ended as the sun slowly descends on the treetops. A passage from the beach of Carnac (less widely known that the alignments) where I do 2 small cool photos.

Day was done, it is time to go. The next day will give us a little way to go.

Previous page Next page