10 years old trip to Brittany: Hunting for Megalith
Writing about a trip that occurred ten years ago isn’t easy, but I have plenty of photos and diary notes to help me. (Most were lost for a while; the heat behind a car window made the erasable ink invisible, and freezing the diary made it reappear.)
Planning the Trip
I began planning the trip in the spring of 2015, looking for a companion. I sometimes need someone to keep my sanity in check when climbing unsafe places for photography, so finding a suitable date for anyone was challenging. Still, in the end, Ness joined me, turning the trip into a photography course. An interesting side effect was the opportunity to compare our photos taken at the same time and place.
Two weeks on the road taught me to overcome my initial fascination with unfamiliar landscapes simply because they are different. This allowed me to focus more on fascinating details.
I never understood the selfie phenomenon, but I decided to try it, so we took a few shots. In the end, I still don’t get it.
Camping is almost a national sport in France, so we planned to sleep mainly in tents and only occasionally indoors. Brittany, a region of France known for its cuisine, was our destination, and we aimed to enjoy coastal specialities. However, we also brought a gas stove, a pan, and a pot because cooking for ourselves has charm.
The Journey
The overnight drive through Germany and France was uneventful. In the morning, we started—following my tradition—visiting the Saturday market in Rennes, where we stocked up on supplies. Boru took me to this market when she was studying there, and since then, I have always stopped by whenever I travel to Brittany.
Our first campsite was in Brocéliande, a forest steeped in legends of King Arthur. There, we discovered that a historical festival was taking place at a local “Arthurian” castle. It wasn’t much different from the historical events back home, although they emphasised period gastronomy more.
Next, we visited Mont-Saint-Michel. Technically, it’s no longer in Brittany, but we couldn’t skip it. The interiors had changed significantly since my last visit, and we even witnessed rescuers helping a group of girls who were stranded in the tidal zone. Years before, I heard about the French plan to make it a tidal island again—and now we’ve seen it happen. The road was turned into a bridge, and a lot of sand was being removed.
From there, we headed west. A few days later, along the northwestern coast, we found a beach where anyone can collect seafood for lunch—you have to be quicker than the other campers and wake up extra early.
So far, I have spent hours watching the sea and boats (and later lighthouses) at various places, and I enjoyed that immensely. However, we hadn’t seen any megaliths yet. Then it happened: megalith signs were everywhere. There were so many that we couldn’t stop at all of them. I doubt anyone could visit them all, even after living in Brittany for several years.
Of course, a stop at the largest megalithic structure in Europe—Cairn de Barnenez—was mandatory. Some might argue that today, any pile of stones is called a megalith, but even Newgrange once looked like a heap of rubble before it was rebuilt.
Not every place in Brittany is spectacular. Brest, where we changed the direction of our travels, mainly functions as a military base, and there isn’t much else to see. The area includes wartime fortifications, but the city isn’t worth visiting. Nevertheless, we encountered girls travelling through Brittany with a donkey carrying their luggage among the fortified places—that was a new sight!
According to the Lonely Planet guide, we were supposed to visit a nearby cider museum, but it had been closed for years. While cider production continued, it was never as large as the guidebook suggested. The locals were helpful and explained the situation to us, and at least we brought back a few bottles of excellent cider.
Not all megalithic structures are ancient. We found a modern stone alignment created by a scientist who purchased menhirs from various parts of Brittany and arranged them on his land.
Another menhir we visited had been used as a meeting place for the resistance during World War II, which the Germans didn’t appreciate and subsequently blew up. Fifty years later, some German craftsmen reconstructed it based on historical photos as a gesture of apology.
During my first journey through France in 2007, I stumbled upon a beautiful stone field I loved. On subsequent trips to Brittany, I could never find it again—until now, by accident. It turned out to be much more extensive than I had remembered.
A surprise awaited us: a German bunker buried inside a burial mound. During the war, the Germans dismantled the mound, built the bunker, and restored it for camouflage.
A trip to Brittany wouldn’t be complete without visiting the salt pans on the southeastern tip or seeing Nantes and its “steampunk” amusement park in the former docks.
A Few Final Tips
– Guidebooks are good, but they can always lie.
– To save on camping fees, arrive after 5 PM and leave before 10 AM—there’s usually no one around to collect payment.
– Not everywhere in France accepts card payments, so having cash is helpful (at least in 2015).
– You can communicate in English in many places, but knowing some basic French phrases is always good.
