Older than Stonehenge or the Pyramids of Egypt

Yessir we’re talking about some very old rocks indeed – and I thought they only existed in Asterix comics!  The Alignements mégalithiques de Carnac consist of around 4000 menhirs and dolmens erected and arranged in lines or fan shapes.  Archaeologically dated from between 5000-3500BC they are some of the oldest man-made structures known.  We did the open-topped bus tour which also took in the local seaside village.

Some friends had suggested we stop by Quiberon which is out on a peninsula nearby.  It reminded us of Whangaparoa or perhaps Devonport with one busy roadway in and out (& with very busy holiday weekend traffic when we visited).  Such a beautiful spot with charming waterfront and white sandy beaches and, again like Devonport, a few pillboxes and other fortifications to explore.

Keeping with the theme of recommendations, one of our Airbnb hosts had suggested we stop by the town of Rochefort-en-Terre which we did after passing through Vannes and some lunch by the riverfront.  Some of these little villages are hard to describe – almost always cobbled streets, with a bunch of higgledy-piggledy buildings of varying architecture but always old!  And the shops are so interesting, often local artisans selling their wares, always a variety of baked goods and plenty of shiny things to keep (our resident magpie) Anita’s head permanently on a swivel!  This little town was thus described with Anita making a new friend along the way – the man who gave us a dégustation (tasting) of the most delicious nougat ever.

Our destination that evening was Nantes on the banks of the Loire River and very close to the coast.  Formerly the capital of Brittany, that title was ceded to Rennes when French regional boundaries were redrawn after WWII.  In this author’s opinion the town could best be described as utilitarian and generally lacking a great deal of soul.  There are some lovely spots, the riverfront has been done up beautifully and there were many families out taking advantage of the warm spring weather.  We enjoyed our time in town, your author was even able to pop out on Saturday evening to join a bunch of locals watching the Champions League final.  Anita was also able to visit the château in town where she found some graffiti from a chap named William Crisp dating from 1746!  Like many of these places, the château in Nantes is a massive structure with huge walls and fortifications – I enjoyed a wander around the ramparts and a read in the sun while Anita completed her tour.  

However…  for once the chateau or cathedral wasn’t the biggest show in town.  For the highlight of any visit to Nantes look no further than Les Machines de l’îsle de Nantes.  You’ll need to be thinking something like Weta Workshops for anything even close to what these guys have managed to achieve.  Essentially this company makes giant working machines of birds and animals (amongst other things) to give them life-like movement and characteristics.  You have everything from small butterflies to a 48-tonne enormous elephant which gives rides to tourists (your author and his better half included) and pretty much everything in between.  I commented to said better-half that the engineering alone in some of these machines would take a few PhD’s to design, let alone the construction which, especially the exteriors, are absolute works of art.  Normally we try to take photographs where possible as we feel that wading through video clips can be cumbersome for our faithful audience, however there’s no way a photo can show the movement of some of these creatures/machines!  Oh, and did I mention that they have a three-story carousel of mechanical ocean creatures you can take a ride in?!  Inspired by one of the town’s most famous sons, Jules Verne, with creatures from above and below the sea, you’ll need to check out the photos/video!

On leaving Nantes we have headed inland up the Loire Valley and are presently in the lovely university city of Angers.  Although having a population less than half that of Nantes (150000 or so versus over 300000) both towns have excellent public transport with light rail in the middle of each main thoroughfare and plenty of cycleways etc.  Unlike my lovely wife, I find that there becomes a certain same-ness about many of the châteaux we are visiting.  Of course, I am clearly lacking appreciation for the finer aspects of the furnishings, décor and other such minutiae… however… The Château d’Angers was in an entirely different category.  Although there is archaeological proof of occupation on the site from around 4000BC, the current structure dates from the 9^th, with what you see today largely being built around the 13^th century.  This place is massive with half a kilometre of walls and 17 towers.  The detail known about these places is astonishing: who built them and from whom they required defending along with the various additions, modifications and improvements, e.g. to allow for the invention of cannons in the 16^th century.  This particular edifice had a dry moat which these days is partly a beautiful garden.  But alas, the description you have just read fails to mention the reason this place is so famous.  We’re talking about La Tapisserie de l’Apocalypse which was commissioned in 1375 and took only 7 years to create.  Originally measuring 140m x 4.5m, today only around 103m of the original length survives and is on display.  The depictions are twofold; firstly the biblical account of Revelation, and secondly French propaganda because we’re smack in the middle of the 100 years war.  Unlike the Bayeux tapestry which in one continuous length, this one is (or has been) cut into sections.  However the overall size is on a much more grand scale and again, super-impressive!

In the past, aspects of life such as tapestries have generally passed this author by, however this trip to France has given his education (and dare he say, interest) in this regard a significant boost.  Having said that, needlework is unlikely to become a new hobby going forward 😊

This evening we have been to the movies – being children who grew up in the 80’s, the new Top Gun movie was a must see.  Some clever research (not by me) found out that the abbreviation VOST is most useful.  Many movies are dubbed with French, however movies noted thus are ‘version originale, sous-titré' meaning we have the original audio but with sub-titles only.

It's getting late so with that your faithful correspondent will bid you au revoir for another day.  Much love to all!

no-one know exactly their purpose however there are quite a few rocks here standing on their ends!

in case you wanted to know the difference between a menhir and a dolmen, this is a dolmen :-)

menhir all lined up in rows

the Quiberon coastline was a little like NZ in places

traffic on the way out - a busy weekend!

Vannes town centre 

Rochefort-en-Terre

Anita new boyfriend:-)

the Loire river from our b&b - beautiful but muddy!

the elephant and the carousel

he's looking at us!

photos of the inside of cathedrals rarely do them justice however we particularly loved Cathédrale Saint-Maurice d'Angers

garden moat at Château d’Angers

one very impressive tapestry

it was still light at 10.30pm on our way home from the movies