We're moving steadily south through France, have left Brittany and are now in Pays de Loire, staying tonight at the mouth of the Loire river at it's entrance to the Atlantic Ocean at St Nazaire.
In three days we've stayed at three Aires: Locmariaquer, only a short drive from Carnac (47°33'26.2"N 2°56'56.4"W) and out on a very scenic peninsular next to the beach with some interesting neolithic burial mounds and standing stones; Guerande, a fabulous medievil walled town and close to amazing salt flats (47°20'02.9"N 2°25'16.2"W); and St Nazaire, probably best known for it's WWII submarine base (47°16'44.9"N 2°12'14.8"W).
The fallen 20m stone in 4 pieces
After experiencing the surreal landscape of the 3000 plus standing stones at Carnac, we drove for less than an hour out and down a little peninsular to stop at another free Aire, this one next to the beach (but the sand bank prevented us having a view!) and just by a neolithic burial site. It's apparently hugely popular during the summer, but the very cold temperatures kept the crowds away, although there were still quite a few people about.
Inside the rebuilt Neolithic tomb, complete with lights
We set up Big Ted for the night, took a walk along the beach to see if we could collect any mussels (sadly no, even after seeing someone come back with a bag full- they must know a secret place!) and visit the neolithic burial site (about 30m away). There's another important neolithic site less than 1.5m away by Locmariaquer town, with a 20m fallen standing stone (contradiction in terms I know) that fell by unknown forces (earthquake possibly) and broke into four pieces, plus a couple of burial tombs, so we set off to see those. The fallen stone was interesting, but the burial tombs had been remade, having been just a few standing stones with a stone top before.
Here's what it looks like now....
Now I don't know about this, on the one hand you can see how it might have looked (but who knows?), complete with lights inside that rotate in colour, but on the other hand you're looking at someone's recent work using stones that were lying around. Should it have been left as it was? I don't know. Included in the entrance price was a video explaining the site, how they had excavated it, what they had found and how they had rebuilt it.
And here's what it looked like before restoraation
All very interesting, the 20m standing stone was brought from at least 10km away and weighs over 300 tonnes, not bad for Neolithic man 7000 years ago! Despite lots of experts, the summary of it all is that they really don't have a clue what it's all about, the language is that the site hasn't yet revealed it's secrets.
Our campsite at Locmariaquer. we're on the left, sea is to the right, sandbank in between
Saw this wild cat in a field, complete with mask!
On the next day (Tuesday 30th) we set off towards Guerande. Actually we were heading straight to St Nazaire as the Aire at Guerande didn't sound very exciting and Jackie wasn't that keen on the salt flats. I, on the other hand was, so we compromised by saying we would take a detour round Guerande and take a 'D' road (equivalent of a 'B' road in the UK, right through the salt flats and then on to St Nazaire.
The white blobs are oysters, loads of them, but very difficult to remove
I had difficulty finding a route on the SatNav as our size of vehicle and weight were too much for the roads. In the end I found a route to a town called Sallie which took us along the D road but then returning the same way as 3.5T maximum weight barred our way (we are 4.2T). I looked at it on Google satellite view and although it looked really interesting there were a few tight turns. Lets see how we feel in the morning I thought, so after a pleasant, but cold walk along the seafront at Locmariaquer in bright morning sunshine we set off, stopping at the huge supermarket on the edge of Guerande to stock up with a few things, just before going on the thin road to Sallie.
Lovely Guerande, complete with water filled moat
After debating what to do, we parked in the free Aire, which wasn't so bad, and walked into Guerande. What a great place it was! The fortifications round it were almost fully intact and the moat was at least half full of water, the first time I have seen water in a moat round what looked like a castle. Inside it was full of old cobbled streets, shops and great churches, the only downside is that everything was closed for lunch until 2:00pm and it was only 1:00pm. Even the ramparts were closed. We went to walk downhill to the salt flats, but it was a long way so we returned to the campsite, got the bikes, stopped at the tourist office to get a map and headed off in warmish afternoon sunshine.
One of the entrances into Guerande town
How interesting, they have been extracting salt from here since Roman times, it's virtually at sea level so is a huge salt water marsh that, over the years, has been divided off into pools that are themselves divided up, then dried in the sun until only salt (and mud) remains. The visitor centre were selling salt in various forms from road salt to salt mills for the table. We didn't buy any but it was tempting. When we arrived at the visitor centre we realised it was on the 'D' road I had originally planned to drive down in Big Ted and, on looking at it I was really quite pleased we had decided not to drive it. It was OK in a car, but not in Big Ted!
A typical street in Guerande
We didn't go on the 45 minute guided walk as we could see what was going on so hopped back on the bikes for an uphill (but not too demanding) cycle back. By this time we had decided to stay the night as Jackie had spied a pizza take-away shop that offered any type and any size for €7.99 on a Tuesday, so that was dinner sorted! We prepared garlic bread and I set off on my bike before sunset at about 5:50pm, but unfortunately they didn't open for the evening until 6:30pm. A quick faff to try to organise lights on my bike (headtorch for the front light) and I set off again in the dark, negotiating rush hour traffic and quickly cooling temperatures, getting back with a still hot pizza for wine, pizza and garlic bread - fabulous!
One of the salt production beds near Guerande
This is a Google Map view of a bit of the salt flats (including that road!)
So this morning we were up and on our way for the incredibly long 30 minute drive to St Nazaire (we did say we weren't going to do long journeys in a day and, so far we haven't!), stopping off at Lidl for a few things (the car parks are smaller, but we managed to find a spot in the corner for Big Ted so he didn't stick out too much) and arriving at the Aire at about 11:00am, in time to hook up to electric (what a novelty, we haven't done that for a while - but we have had to pay to stay here, for the first time in a while, but only €7.75) and head off to explore the docks.
We saw this and thought of little Sooty cat in Birmingham
The Aire is in an industrial area, right by the working docks and two minutes walk to the old German wartime submarine base and scene of one of the most daring raids by British commandos in 1942. I knew about this and had it on my definite list to see. Whilst housesitting we watched a very good documentary by Jeremy Clarkson (yes, really!) called 'The Greatest Raid of All' and it really is. It's on Youtube and last 58 minutes and it is so worth watching. You can see it here by clicking play on the view below.
It's possible to spend loads of money having guided talks, visiting museums, a submarine (done similar one's before), a cruise liner dockyard and even an Airbus assembly area. We didn't do any of those, we walked all round and over the concrete submarine base (the roof is 8.6m thick to prevent enemy (that's us!) bombs penetrating), even walking into the submarine pens, all for free.
The huge, old German WWII submarine base at St Nazaire
The Tourist Information gave us a map and marked things to see, none of which cost any money. We walked round the dockyard stopping at the memorial to Operation Chariot, the British commando raid on 28th March 1942 (I need say no more about it if you've watched the Youtube documentary above), over one of the entrance locks to the Bassin de Saint-Naizaire (currently under refurbishment) and up onto another German concrete buildings offering a panoramic view of the submarine base one side and the lock gate entrance to the dry dock that was the subject of the commando raid.
One of the submarine pens
The memorial to Operation Chariot commando raid
We were standing on top of the building next to the site of a huge gun overlooking the lock and had to marvel at the audacity of the commandos who managed to sail an old destroyer packed with explosives under the noses of all the Germans and crashed it into the lock, blowing it up and disabling the dry dock so necessary for German activities in the Atlantic, not only for the rest of the war, but until five years after. Also from this panoramic spot was a bit of art. Standing in a specific place on the roof it was possible to line up bits of paint of various buildings both near and far to form a pattern. Here's a photo of it. Away from this spot the bits of paint on the buildings were meaningless and, what was painted as a curve appeared straight from the viewpoint. Quite amazing.
The plaque on the memorial
The names of the fallen
Our walk took us further along the dock to the actual dry dock (which was full of water!) and we could see the two lock gates at either end and the dock itself that, at the time, was the largest dry dock in Europe and intended to be used by the Germans to repair ships like the huge Tirpitz after operations against the British in the Atlantic. Taking the dry dock out meant the Tirpitz never entered the Atlantic, staying around Norway for the duration of the war, until it was finally sunk by the RAF in a Fiord in Norway.
Here's that photo of the artwork. The red triangles are painted on buildings far and wide and they only appear complete from this spot
There's the lock that was rammed, all beneath the guns on the left
We returned further through the docks, over a swing bridge near the submarine base and back to Big Ted. What a fabulous day! Of course the tourist board promote St Nazaire for many other things other than it's wartime role, th is a neolithic burial mound nearby that we went to look at, they have very good beaches and shops apparentlyere and also a number of other monuments including one commemorating the abolishment of slavery (which we saw) and and American monument. We could have spent a lot longer here (and spent a lot more money), but we are very happy with what we've seen. Very, very pleased we came.
The dry dock (currently full of water). The lock in the distance was the one rammed
Another photo taken from the Wikipedia site. This one shows the remains of HMS Campbeltown in the dry dock after it exploded and was swept into the dock by the rushing water. The dock has been blocked off at both ends and remained out of action for the rest of the war
The Neolithic dolmen in the centre of St Nazaire. This would originally have been under an earth mound and is the remains of a burial tomb, now surrounded by city houses
A last walk with Lexy dog before leaving Gill and Martins
The last blog felt slightly stilted on re-reading, that’s what comes of not being ready to leave! Gill and Martin arrived back about half past midnight, so bed was about half past two! Not normal for us, but the conversation was unstoppable. It continued the following morning over coffee and croissants, before we finally left about 12.30 feeling like we were saying goodbye to some old friends, though we suspect it’s not goodbye as they’d love to have us back, and we’d love to go back, so maybe?
Only 80km to Carnac, but by the time we’ve filled up with the cheapest diesel we’ve seen for a long time, €1.46 only for it to be €1.44 just down the road, and stopped for lunch it’s 14.30 when we pull up in the middle of Carnac on our first free Aire (47°35'07.0"N 3°04'57.3"W) and we are both feeling very tired! A gentle stroll into the tourist information, followed by a little more of a stroll to the touristy bit we made plans for the next few days.
Our campsite in Carnac
The standing stones at Carnac
After a good nights sleep we were up bright and early, to miss the incoming rain, to go to the visitor centre to learn about the standing stones that are the main attraction of the area (47°35'29.4"N 3°04'56.7"W), in fact so early, we were 10 minutes before opening! We watched the little film, which basically says no one knows why thousands of stones were stood up, in rows, 7000 years ago! So, none the wiser we set off on the 3km walk alongside and among the standing stones. You have to wonder why? But having wondered that’s about it really!
Some of them are quite big
Still a good little walk with a purpose, and back to Ted before the rain and for lunch. The rain never really happened, so we thought we’d follow the signs to the wine and food fair. For €2.00 we tasted a lot of wine, and chatted to a lot of producers from the Beaujolais lady whose husbands family have been producing wine for 150 years on 100+ hectares to the new kids on the block who have had 5 hectares for only the last 4 years but have produced some very nice, award winning, wines. Feeling slightly squiffy we headed back out into the very cold wind and back to Ted again.
Really quite big! Erected 7000 years ago at the dawn of civilisation, there are over 3000 stones aligned in straight rows and this is just one of many sites in this area. Older than Stonehenge and the pyramids, it's the largest Neolithic site in Europe
The tumulus Saint-Michel. Ancient buriel tomb with a church on top
Very cold overnight, fine for us snuggled under the duvet, but we do have to worry about Ted’s temperature, if the water and van heater falls to 3 degrees it dumps the 10 litres of water it contains as a frost protection. We thought we’d try leaving the thermostat on 1 to see what happened. It did just as we hoped, turning on at 06.30 with an inside temperature of 6.9 degrees and an outside temperature of 4.9 degrees, so that’s comforting, and we didn’t roast, which was my other worry!
The internal buriel chamber inside the tumulus Saint-Michel, closed to the public since 1997
A stop on our cycle ride round the coast at Carnac
Sunday, unusually, is market day and what with the clock change we were ready to go out for 09.00, not all the stall holders were ready but we didn’t want to buy a mattress anyway. Did find some fish stalls selling mussels which I was looking for as every other restaurant is selling moules et frites, but at between 4.90 and 5.10 Euro per kilo for some very small looking mussels we decided not to bother. The plan was then to cycle round the headland to look at the beach and oyster farms, again the sky had cleared, but it’s very cold, so warmly wrapped we set off for a very pleasant cycle, enjoying three oysters apiece with a chilled glass of white at Les Huîtres Cochennec (47°34'40.8"N 3°05'49.0"W). I’d say what’s not to like? But I know the answers I’ll get from some!
Another night in Carnac then, well it’s free, there is a dump station and a small toilet block and our next stop is down a peninsula, on a road to nowhere with only one small Aire to stay in, so we decided arriving earlier on a Monday is probably safer than arriving later on a Sunday! Anyway, that gives me another opportunity to pop into LIDL and look for more bargains.... 20 cents for a huge salad bowl yesterday with falafel, marinated tomatoes and couscous..... We have finally started on our journey, they way we expected it to be, slow and gentle, not all rush and excitement but getting a good feel for a place.
The oysters and white wine arrive! It's sunny and really cold, but it's a nice view
The final countdown till we are back on the road has started, and is coming a day earlier than expected, because Martin has an extra week off so is keen to make the most of it by coming out ASAP, he works two weeks in the UK and is here for two weeks, but has managed a third week from work, though this does mean Gill is missing out on a planned Grandma day. We’ve really enjoyed ourselves here, except for Monday morning when we went to let the animals out to find something had dug its way into the duck and chicken house and killed both chickens, eating the head and neck of one though the other appeared untouched, shock?
Evening sunset as we put the animals to bed one night
The duck was understandably a bit traumatised, it certainly had some blood on it, though we weren’t sure whether it was its own or not. Not a good way to start the day for us or ducky. The final indignity for the day was to have to be picked up to put into her newly allocated pen, on the hard standing to prevent digging, but small, so no chance of herding her in! By day three however some gentle herding was enough and a lot less stressful for everyone, she has also done some preening and is blood free and looks absolutely fine.
The Medievil walled town of Moncontour
The weather has been kinder this week, with most afternoons being beautiful, though some of the mornings have been a bit grim. We’ve been to Moncontour a small, old but beautiful little town round which we had a good, two cat, walk. We’ve taken Lexy out in the car a couple of times to a local reservoir where she had a great walk, a good little circuit. We’ve cleaned Ted inside and out and enjoyed cake or early evening drinks out in the sunshine.
Walking the old streets of Moncontour
The only difference here or when traveling is the company, it’s lovely to be surrounded by furries when sitting outside, they just love the company. Pasha and Lexy do wander off, but only to the end of the road, occasionally visiting their mate across the crossroads. I did come in today to find their mate in while the other two were outside with me, Brian hadn’t noticed! We’ve been particularly honoured by how much we’ve seen of Noodles, she is such a sweetie, loves some fuss, and we’ve now seen her four consecutive days, which may be it for the next month!
Street of Moncontour
Alfie parrot trying to get into his M&M treat box
Alfie is ‘helping’ Brian making a video of Big Ted (yes, another one) he knows he shouldn’t be going for the keys, but also knows how to wrap Brian round his little foot, if he gets shouted up he just lowers his head giving you the signal for please stroke my neck, I’m cute really.... We’ve been intrigued by the cows that get moved up and down the road twice a day, going where they are moved and not crossing the piece of string pulled up across side streets. One sneeze and they’d be through, but no, the string is there, they don’t cross it. We also saw a cow that had obviously only just given birth, licking her calf and trying to persuade it to stand up. It can only have been minutes old.
New born calf being attended to by its mum
So tomorrow, back on the road after a good debrief.
A bold Alfie parrot nibbles Murphy cats paw
Here's an interesting thing Gill told us, the white post with a red band signifies traffic entering the major road from the right have priority, they can just pull out in front of you without warning. There is a Stop sign telling people they should stop, but I suppose old habits die hard. Who would be right in the event of an accident is anyone's guess so, if you see one of these posts, watch out!
The lovely old water mill at Cornean, just down the road from us.
A week has flown by, the weather hasn’t been great but this has given us the perfect opportunity to stay in with all the fluffies, which we’ve loved. We’ve had little walks with Lexy, did try with Pasha but she just shakes and trembles as she believes she might be taken back to her previous life on the puppy farm. We were honoured to meet Noodles, the third cat, who hadn’t been seen for five weeks, though this is a normal occurrence. I assumed this meant she was a fraidy cat, but no, she loved tickles, was hungry but certainly not skinny, so where she goes, who knows?
Noodles cat eating with Murphy cat, looked on by Belle cat
Lexy is so full of affection she doesn’t want to sit by you, but absolutely on top of you, she is also a bit of a jealous dog, doesn’t want to miss out when love is being given to anyone else. This works to our advantage occasionally when Alfie bird is being a bit much as she ‘protects ‘ you from him with a little snap or paw, not that this really puts Alfie off, on one evening he faced off all four indoor furries, chewing on ears and tails, getting the odd swipe, but really not being phased at all. Lexy has spent every night in our room in theory on her bed, but always ending up on ours at some point. Pasha is such a Sweetie, scared of cuddles, being stroked can hurt her neck, doesn’t know how stairs work, but loves a little dance of joy, pattering her tiny feet with tail wagging 19 to the dozen
Alfie parrot facing off Lexy dog
Cocky Alfie parrot thinks he owns the place
Belle snuggles up on the sofa, but it’s Murphy who has taken a shine to me, coming to sit on my knee of an evening for fuss and attention. It’s lovely to see him and Lexy together as lots of fussing goes on between them too. We had prawns for dinner the other night, never has one dinner had so much attention from four animals. It was a lovely simple dinner, but one we will never enjoy as much again.
Alfie parrot tormenting a sleeping Belle cat
The star of the show though is obviously Alfie, even if it is like caring for a toddler, not being able to take your eyes off him for a second, at least, unlike a toddler you can lock him in his cage occasionally. He comes out in the morning once cats are fed, and outdoor animals have been dealt with, for breakfast. He has no interest in fruit (chocolate is his treat) but has decided that perhaps cornflakes and milk are interesting, better than with yoghurt anyway. Though pretty much everything is interesting, Crocs, the elastic at the bottom of my trousers. Glasses, necklaces, the zip of my fleece. Ears, facial moles and drinking glasses, either with or without fluid.
He'll chew anything he can get his beak round!
Oh and buttons, buttons on remote controls, computers and on the oven. He sounds like a terror, and he is, and it might have put Brian off wanting one, but for a fortnight he’s a delight. Open his cage door, let him make his own way out, usually to the top of the lounge door before flying into the kitchen and whichever shoulder he fancies, food preparation is really interesting, he didn’t worry about me prepping a chicken for roasting, well it was naked I guess..... He then hops and flies around alternating between cute and irritating. Good as gold though if you put your hand out he’ll step onto it to be placed on a shoulder or back in his cage. What we weren’t quite expecting was the poop though, in quantity and colour, very green and all over the place. I’ve got indoor clothes and going out clothes, how I’ll manage to get away with all clean clothes I’m not quite sure!
Murphy cat and Lexy dog enjoy some chilling time together
That’s probably it for indoor animals, except for the tiny little mouse under the bedside cabinet last night that vanished before we could catch him! Outside animals are also entertaining, goats in the shed, on the shed, on the pig, coming to be handfed some bread. Lizzie the pig snores and snuffles occasionally making her way out for a drink but she doesn’t do a lot, though does enjoy being tickled behind the ear or between the shoulder blades. The geese trail around en masse, keeping guard, though not much goes near them. Bedtime is easy, if the timing is right, doves and brown chickens are away, herd the duck in with the brown chickens by which time the geese have taken themselves away with the roosters, just leaving the goats, pig and two chickens to put themselves away, the goats have chewed the door so they can come and go as they please!
You have to be quick in this house. Brian cooked cheese straws that Alfie parrot swooped in to try
The undivided attention of two dogs and two cats as food is handed out
So has it all been about the animals? Not quite, we had guests in the two gites on Saturday night, the local couple who had booked them for the christening of their son popped in just to have a look, I thought I understood that they were coming back to cook for everyone for the evening, so we were very confused when they didn’t arrive till 02.00am, fortunately we didn’t wait up for them!
Andrew fitting a new satellite dish (so we can watch Strictly!)
We’ve had Andrew the satellite man round twice to fix the satellite, hopefully for good this time, new dish and LNB. He’s a great bloke, really interesting, but boy, can he talk, but is this a problem for us? No. We were invited out for drinks and dinner with Debbie and Ken and big Tom the plumber, few drinks in town before pizza, except the pizzeria was shut, so they’d cooked a fab spaghetti bolognese. The wine was freely flowing much to the detriment of the following day, but hey, it was a bit miserable anyway.
While Murphy cat gets the concentrated rays from the old dish
Big Tom has been round to sort out the radiators as for some reason the noise of the pump has started reverberating through our bedroom, turning the pump off would have done as far as we are concerned, but the radiators needed doing. We left him to it and went to Dinan for the day, couldn’t hang about as it was market day and we’d overslept, well it doesn’t get light till after 08.00. The weather forecast was finally improved. Thoroughly enjoyable walk round the old town, walls and port along with a galette (savoury pancake) for lunch in Crêperie Ahna, we must eat out a little more often. One week down, one to go.
And Belle enjoys the sun on the bench out front
Out in the farmyard
Goats enjoying being hand fed
But we can't tempt Lizzie pig out very often. You can just see her black body through the window
