Thursday, June 16, 2022 - Carnac for kids

 Today's plans include a "train" ride around Carnac and La Trinité-sur-Mer and swimming at Carnac Plage (the beach). We managed to get on the road just before 9:30 and were in Carnac shortly after 10. We made a quick stop downtown at the tourist office for maps - one for Papa and one for Evie - then headed back to the megalithic site. 

Carnac is famous for its menhirs (standing stones) - thousands of menhirs in alignments of straight rows or sometimes in circles (cromlech). 

menhirs of Carnac

Their purpose remains a mystery. Unlike Stonehenge, these stones do not have any celestial orientation. Nor are they as enormous as those at Stonehenge. But your breath is taken away by the sheer scale of the alignments that go on for kilometers. What prompted neolithic society to expend the enormous energy required to find, cut, carry, and finally erect these stones in parallel alleys. In 2022, their purpose is still a mystery, but they speak across thousands of years, in the very least, saying "We were here." The organization and planning that must have gone into choosing and erecting these stones suggests the cooperation of thousands over centuries. This project, whatever its purpose, connects us in wonder to events thousands of years old. 

miles of rows of standing stones

We figured a good way to see some of the most important stones would be aboard the "Petit Train" - a tourist ride of 50 minutes that drives around the landscape of Carnac and its neighboring town, La Trinité-sur-Mer. North of Carnac's city center (which is really along the beach) is the Maison des Megalithes - an information center and shop - and a reasonably large parking lot. The train leaves from this parking lot. 

map from the Petit Train Carnac website

We arrived in time to get a discount on our tickets and hopped aboard our train. Headsets on the train can be set to any of 16 different languages. There's also a kids channel narrated by characters. 

Lynn, Randy, Penny, Evie, Katie ready to board the Petit Train

We should have thought about bringing sweaters as the air is still cool this morning, exacerbated by the movement of the train. Penny wore her Mom's sweater and snuggled for most of the ride. 

Penny wearing Mom's sweater. Evie and her map.

We traveled first toward Carnac's beautiful sand beach. Along the way we learned about the salt harvesting in the marshlands around Carnac. We drove along the wide LONG beach where thalassotherapy (sea water spa, essentially) has long been practiced. We continued east and north through La Trinité-sur-Mer, a large pleasure boat port. Saving the best for last, we passed by (with stops for photos) a couple of dolmens 

a dolmen is a burial site, here on the side of the road

and finally the three sites of standing stones. (video courtesy of Evie)

Back at the parking lot, we have a bit of time to explore. So we walked over to the hiking path where we first saw some standing stones that you could touch and that were in private yards. These were part of a large circle of stones (cromlech) which has mostly disappeared. 

These rocks are in the backyard of a creperie

Officially, you shouldn't climb on these standing stones. But the one Penny and Evie are on fell over a long time ago.

We walked a short way along the path to see the standing stones up close. 

No matter how hard they pushed, they couldn't move this stone. How did the neoliths do it?

As it was time for lunch, we picked up the car and drove to one of the other alignments where there were picnic tables for lunch. 

Jam cookies for dessert

Yum

Papa had one more stop planned. There are several dolmens that you can go into just a short way north of where we were. So we drove to these, making a few wrong turns along the way. These dolmens were  the hit of the day. There are three in close proximity, one of which is still mostly buried underground, but you can walk into it. 

Do I dare go in?

Inside the buried tumulus - there's always a dolmen for the base structure

One of the exposed dolmens

I  could also come as the path was short and well-packed

Evie inside a dolmen

Evie and Penny inside the large dolmen

Penny at the back entrance of the dolmen

the third dolmen

Evie was insistent that we find the 4th dolmen, but it wasn't immediately clear where it was. A few minutes of searching without result convinced everyone it was time to go. It's getting late if we want to go to the beach. 

Since it's now almost 3:00, we have to decide, beach here for an hour or beach at home for longer. Beach here won out. We found a handicapped area of the beach with parking and special covering over the dunes so that my scooter can make it all the way to the beginning of the beach. Unfortunately, since the tide is out, the water is 100 yards from where I have to stop. 

beautiful sand beach, but hot!

That's me in the red way back. I could scooter that far, but then the sand got too soft. The building was the original thalassotherapy location of a French doctor whose name I've forgotten. I was told it would be up for sale in October.

The rest of the explorers found lots of interesting things along  the water's edge (The water is still really cold - too cold to swim.) I found a shady tree and did some stitching. At 4:15, the crew was back at the car and decided to ride home in wet suits (in case they wanted to go swimming again). 

Penny joined a fitness class that was doing yoga in the water. 

Randy thought it was too cold  to go any deeper than his ankles

Penny and a treasure - She found a whole clam shell that was still connected.

By the time we got home, around 5 pm, everyone was too tired to even think about swimming. So apéros were put out while Dave and Katie helped me make ratatouille and bread pudding to go with our green beans and pork tenderloin. We ate well. 

Katie and Randy packed suitcases and gathered their stuff and everyone was in bed by 9 pm. Tomorrow is a really early day - up by 4:45, leaving the house by 5:30 to catch the 8:09 train for Paris in Nantes (1 hour 40 minutes away)