We had a lot of ground to cover in Brittany today, but it was easy driving so we were able to relax and enjoy it all. But one note about driving in France, or at least in Brittany: we drove through many rural, wooded areas and the windshield murdered many insects. I stopped at three gas stations hoping to find a scraper and windshield fluid, and came up empty at all three, except that the last one at least had the scraper. So I bought a jug of windshield fluid and put half of it in the bucket for the scraper (after first emptying weeks worth of dust and debris), and scrubbed my windshield. I hope then next Breton motorist who stops there doesn't perish of shock from finding the bucket full!
Our goal of the day was to tour the Brittany countryside and see sites of old Armorica from the medieval Arthurian mythos, then southwest to the coast to see the neolithic marvels: the Alignements de Carnac and the tombs at Locmariaquer, then to burn up some kilometers to spend the night at Angers.
Medieval Armorica had Merlin’s tomb and the "fountain of youth", really a pretty natural pool, Morgan le Fay’s Vale of No Return in the magical Broceliande Forest. These were described in medieval lays written by troubadours for the entertainment of the noblewomen of the day. It was all fiction, but over the centuries some places have taken on the identities of these fictional constructs. The fountain of youth, in particular, had me skeptical when I saw these adolescents walking back from it, and of course we did indeed return from the Vale of No Return. But they were pretty to see and there is indeed a mystical feel to the place!
Neolithic Brittany, near the southern shore of the Bay of Morbihan, had two main sites that we wanted to see:
The museum and the Alignments of Carnac in Carnac are miles-long parallel lines of large stones brought from some distance for reasons not yet understood, but that are still actively studied.
Locmariaquer’s dolmen (a group grave), tumulus (a single grave of an important individual), and giant menhir (a 330-ton column-shaped standing stone brought to this site from some miles away, and now fallen and broken into three huge pieces. It was the largest in a row of 19 menhirs.
Melissa and I went into the dolmen. Some of the large stones were inscribed with elaborate Celtic patterns, and we marveled at how these were constructed 7,000 years ago.
We tried to get something to eat at Le Brittania, near Carnac, but that did not work out. I had selected it from many others during my careful planning sessions over the winter, but I had failed to note the hours. Like most places in rural and even suburban France, they were closed except for the bar when we arrived at 6:00, not to open for supper for another hour.
So we drove east on highways towards the Loire Valley, to Nantes and then to our hotel in Angers. There was nothing at all interesting about this part of the adventure; we might as well have been driving across New Jersey!
Supper was a surprise! The Hotel Ibis Styles Angers Centre Gare in Angers was nothing special and the neighborhood looked like it was on the edge of the sketchier parts of town. But it was getting late (but not yet dark!) and we walked a couple of blocks to Meet Noodle, a Chinese place that was quite excellent. We were alone in there. We got veggie dishes of noodles, rice noodles, and dumplings, and everything was fresh and delicious. The owners were friendly but they spoke no English and we could speak neither French nor their native language so we made do with gestures and many exclamations of "Yum"!