Wednesday, Sep 30th - Carnac

Greetings!

Before I got into early history, I had only heard mention of Carnac as a personna Johnny Carson played on his Tonight Show while doing magic jokes with Ed McMahon. It's the site of one of the largest collections of megalithic stones, arranged in dozens of rows hundreds deep. In the surrounding hundred kilometers, there are many other sites which contain the broad variety of stone structures erected by French settlers in 3500 - 3000 BC. This was the period when equally amazing stone structures were being built in Turkey which we visited last year, and just before a huge and impressive burial mound (like the one we went to today on the island of Gravenitis) was built at Newgrange in Ireland.

Earlier today, we saw the largest Menhir (the stones which are usually standing up straight alone in a field). It had been carved, but broken before it could be erected. Unbelieveably, they decided to use the three pieces as roof stones in two locations, one of which is 27 kilometers away from where it was made. It was the roof stone in the burial tomb we saw today on Gavrinis Island. How they got it here, and transported it across the sea (it weighs 17 tons) is another ancient mystery. Unfortunately, I left my camera battery in the hotel room, and we only had time to photograph the island site - and there they didn't allow photos inside the mound. All-in-all a bad photo day, but a good stone hunting adventure anyway.

Tonight, we plan the route to the Loire Valley. Thanks for all of your patience with our rock hunting this past week. There will be at least a week's break until we get to the Pyrennees in southern France. Now for some inland culture.


To see all of the photos we took today, click on:
Wednesday, September 30th

Tuesday, September 29th, Carnac

Greetings!

Thanks to a hotel with an Apple IMac in the lobby, I'm able to type with more thAn one finger. You can't have everything, however. The keyboard is European, and the letters are all misplaced. Such struggles.

We've somewhat recovered from our colds, and the wonderful sunny days and balmy evenings have kept us outdoors. Perhaps a little too much, because we both got a little sunburn today. Our hotel tonight is another unbelieveable French coastal beach hotel (the Ibis Hotel on the Carnac Thalasso Spa and Resort in Carnac). We spent most of the day tracking down megalithic stones, and plan on doing some more searching tomorrow. We'll visit a local prehistoric history museum in the morning, and go for a sail across the Moriban Gulf to an island where there is a large cairn (burial tomb). Then, we end our stone searching, and head inland to the Loire Valley for chateaus and more old and gorgeous villages. I have gotten even more than I expected out of the first two weeks of our trip, and the next segment is one where there are no serious plans or expectations as we go. We'll take it one day at a time.

To see all of the photos we took today, click on:
Monday, September 29th

Monday, September 28th, Permast

Greetings!
No progress on fixing the laptop. You will notice some missing letters which have died on it. Also, using the laptop and IPod as a team requires some design changes in the blog (photos lower in post).

We're still having fun, though both of us have colds. The French coast is full of megalithic surprises around each turn. We're on a treasure hunt, and taking it at a slower pace lately.

We'll be heading for Carnac tomorrow for a couple of days. Then, inland to the Loire Valley.

To see all of the photos we took today, click on:
Monday, September 28th

Sun, Sep 27th, Plougastal

Greetings!

Still unable to type much on the laptop. Has keboard problems. We may have to write only on the iPod. We'll see how creative we can be when the sentences are limited to linear typing (no cuts, reworking,etc.). More soon.




To see all of the photos we took today, click on:
Sunday,September 27th

Saturday, September 26th, Trebeurden

Greetings!

Day great, but inadequate wifi at hotel. Too bad, as photos were pretty good. I can't say much for typing this on my Ipod, however. Stay tuned, and we'll see if we can fix this.

To see all of the photos we took today, click on:
Sa, September 26th

Gregory