Elven, Carnac et al

15-19 August

Based in Elven we were able to go and explore the surrounding area by car, with Alexandra as driver and guide: Vannes, Carnac, the Quiberon peninsula, Auray, Rochefort-en Terre, Questembert.

Vannes has a long history but the main era represented is medieval. There are walls and gates and narrow streets, with many of those picturesque houses with visible wooden beams. Easy to stroll around, come in one gate and go out the other. 

There was a lovely set of medieval herb gardens in the public square in front of the Mairie, with labels and explanatory panels. Later on in our stay we went to one of the crêperies along the harbour.  We went with tradition - a savoury galette made with buckwheat flour, followed by a sweet crêpe made of ordinary flour, all washed down with local cider. Good combination!

Carnac has one of the most well-known of the pre-historic alignments and I had never been there before, although I have visited other alignments in other parts of Brittany. I was astonished by the vast number of standing stones (menhirs). They are spread over a huge area and free to view, although now fenced. 

We walked for many kilometres around two of the main groups: Kermario has nearly a thousand menhirs in 10 more-or-less parallel rows and Le Ménac, (within walking distance) about 1200 in 11 rows. Here, even the houses have stones around them, apparently 71 in all.

From the megaliths at Carnac it is not far to the beach, a great sweep of beach, with a notice showing how the beach usage is to be shared, between horses, sand yachts, surfers, kite-surfers and swimmers. We saw 3 separate groups of horses and a few sand yachts. Very few swimmers.

Brittany is known for its cliff-walks and on the Quiberon peninsula, just along from Carnac, you have the sea on both sides. We didn't go right to the end but we did go and walk to a cliff edge or two. 

The port area of Auray, where we called in on the way home, is very picturesque, even in the dark, when we arrived there. Very lively, many restaurants, all of which were so full we chose not to eat there. But we did go into one of those shops that sells all manner of chocolates and traditional biscuits by the 100 grams. You ate a scoop and put as much as you want into a cellophane bag, weigh…and pay. I bought only 100 grams but we managed to make it last 2-3 days, with three of us. That's pretty good going!

We also visited the village on Rochefort-en-terre, which draws in the tourists for it's picturesqueness - one of the 'Plus Beaux Villages de France' series. All the buildings have a stone component, so whether they are medieval half-timbered houses, gothic church, Renaissance mansions or more modern constructions, the architectures blend quietly and it is indeed easy on the eye. Here are all the souvenir shops with things to eat and things to take home but it is also possible just to enjoy walking around the streets and being somewhere different from the usual.

Not that half-timbered houses are unusual. This is an area where they have been well-looked after. Walking around Malestroit with Alexandra we were shown the house her uncle used to live in, which had particularly good wooden sculptures around the sides, all in good condition.

Questembert is not far away, with its superb covered market (monument historique, 1552) and an unusual 'bar' where we spent some time as it is run by people Alexandra knows well. 

This is a cheese and beer bar. The owners really wanted to run a cheese shop but it didn't seem viable, so they teamed the cheese up with beer! They have over 100 varieties of beer and cheese bought from cheese-makers all per France. You order your beer and, if you want to, a plate of cheeses. The idea seems to be working. We tasted three local beers, and all ending up keeping the one they preferred.

Elven is a very pretty village and has a forest on at least one side, where you could continue walking for hours. It has several bakeries and pâtisseries, each with specialities, which means going to two bakeries, each for different things.

Alexandra got us a Breton cake to try, which lasted well (all that butter…)

while we in turn checked out some of the smaller pâtisseries with her. 

There was a market day while we were there and a very small market, just for a short space of time, really near Alexandra's place where I bought a delicious fresh goat's cheese. Not that we spent all our time eating, but when we ate we really enjoyed it! In fact we enjoyed everything we did there, including watching some French videos, with Alexandra at the ready to translate when it was impossible to follow. It was hard to pack up again, go back to Malestroit for our bikes, have a last drink together in the sun (hot chocolate, to be precise) and set off again along the canal from Nantes to Brest. But it wasn't hard to continue once we'd set off and we knew we would see Alexandra again really soon.