The tumulus of Barnenez is at the end of the world, on a peninsula far north in Brittany… and it is a survivor in a way… because in 1954 it was almost leveled… and we are still lucky because one is left, but there used to be two or even more…



The others monuments are gone (they have been used, as usual, as stone quarry). And the one, we still can visit, almost subjected to the same fate when, what was at that time the heritage officials stopped the disapearance of the cairn.

It was already mapped in military documents during the XVIII th century, and soon in the touristic guides. But nobody was then aware of the importance of the this huge construction (72 meters long).

This neolithic tumulus (mound raised over a grave)is a stone mound of two different periods. It shelters 11 funeral chambers (dolmen or passage grave) with corridors open on the south east side.



Built between 5000 and 4000 years before Christ (the first cairn circa 4500 and the second circa 4200), the megalithic monument is a big pile of stones up to 8 meters high.

The place has been frequented for several centuries after its erection. The first mound (the one you see first) is composed of 5 chambers and is done with stones from the close surroundings. 2000 square meters, about 4000 tons of material. The archeologists think that 10 000 to 12 000 days of work were required tobuild the Barnenez cairn. That represents 10 workers working on it for 3 to 4 years.

That amount of workers could be feeded by a community of hundreds of people. Something that was not so incredible but quite possible…

The second one is an extension of the first one. 6 passage graves built in an other kind of stone (granite).



Probably because the other stone was exhausted. And they had much work because that material was more than one kilometer away. Specially because the second construction is two times more important than the first one and needed four to five times more work. Some chambers have stone walls weighting several tons and … what a job to carry them on the top of the hill.

The second cairn was used as a stone quarry and "thanks" to that mistake, we can see the inside structure of four chambers.

One is a megalithic room : big squares of stone are used as walls and roof.
Another is the symbol of the stone cupola using the technic of corbel arch done with stones.



Another mixes the two architectures.



Stone slabs were not often used : first of all, because they were heavy and hard to transport to the top of the hill… or because they were rare or because with the experience, the builders had noticed that the slabs did brake because of the heavy weight (tons of stones on them) they had to carry.

All these chambers were graves, individuals (important people even women) or collectives. And the people entered them thanks to a passage way…
This incredible monument is located on the top of a hill in a nowadays peninsula. At that time the sea level was different and under. But the place was choosen on purpose. The neolitic architects liked to admire the sea or … to be admired from far away.





Go and visit it. It is a fabulous monument… the French stonehenge…



Read it in French : Les dolmens de Barnenez : un tumulus du Finistère (Bretagne)

In Brittany, south, you have a nice little sea called le golfe du Morbihan (Gulf of Morbihan) where it is really nice to cruise.
And if you like old stones and megaliths, you'll be amazed by the island of Gavrinis and its cairns.
Back a few centuries ago, when the cairn was erected, the landscape was quite different : the gulf and its 42 islands did not exist. No cruise in the sun... no 10 minutes boattrip from Larmor-Baden ... to reach the island of Gavrinis … Land replaced the sea. There was just a beautiful hill.

The island is today divided into two : one part is a private property (Council of Morbihan would have liked to purchased it but they had no money) ... Stars from Paris bought it : the farm and the dozen hectares of the island became the property of a ... Parisian .... The other tiny part is the cairn !



Back to the huge cairn ...
... It was probably part of a more important megalithic site ... Leaving the island, you will notice that the island in front of the cairn has standing stones (discovered when low tide). They are still standing! Even after billions of tides ! The builders of the Neolithic time were working really well !!!



The monument was built around 3500 BC: it is composed of a dolmen (stone table) covered by a mound of dry stone ... ie a long corridor with stone slabs that leads to a room ... it seems that the corridor is the longest in Brittany and the room is the smallest ...
And as always, my answers/questions are assumptions : no paper trail, no skeletons (Breton soil is too acidic), only ideas and imagination to understand those prehistoric people. We still can not explain these singularities ...
By cons, it seems that the corridor has been intentionally filled with stones at a time ... (the spirits did not want curious minds to destroy the place, they wanted to wait until humanity will be mature enough and concerned to "discover" this awesome vestige) ...

How did those heavy stones get there?
The assumptions are : a river had to pass near the hill Gavrinis ... stones weighing several tons have been brought by reverse flotation (the guide will explain) near the site and then rolled on logs. One of the stones of the dolmen, which is the "roof" ... corresponds to one of the broken menhir in Locmariaquer ...a huge stone over twenty meters broken into three parts ... (do not miss it !)



How do we know that our ancestors did use it as it is recovered ?
As the slab is turned towards the sky, we would never have known it... but fortunatly the cairn has been damaged... a crater at the summit was showing a part of this carved menhir … Therefore no seek of the missing piece of the table des marchants!

Another interesting detail : each stone is decorated with geometric patterns or designs ... A true team of professionnal sculptors and engravers have worked for hours to get this result: perfect lines, without corrections, with regular spaces between curves, precision work on a very hard stone (try to carve granite, you'll see!).
Presumably, the community that built the monument had artists among them !

In short, the history of the monument is exciting ... The site guides will reveal more secrets about the cairn.
You need to pay for the visit and it is only possible from April to November. Book before you go, it is often full... (same thing for accommodation, we had to drive far inland to find a place to sleep !).
For once, if crowds are passionate, there is nothing to complain about!



Read this article in French : Croisière dans le golfe et les îles : Gavrinis

1 –The biggest menhir in Brittany weights 30 metric tons ?
It weights much more. Menhir is a breton word : men means stone and hir means long. If you know the French Obélix, it is the stone he is carrying around. The biggest in Brittany lies in Locmariaquer (Morbihan) it used to be 21 meters (more than 65 ft) long but it is broken and lays down on the floor. It weights more than 300 metric tons.




2 – A dolmen is a circle of different stones ?
You’re wrong. A dolmen is a « stonetable » in breton language, that means upright stones that are carrying a roofstone. Dolmen are really often without roof and have misceallanous architectures : the passageway is short to long, it has one to many chambers that are round, rectangular… La Roche aux Fées (Essé, Ille et Vilaine) is a nice one. During the neolitic time, it was probably covered by earth and stones forming a barrow.



3- And what is a cromlech or a cairn ?
A cromlech is a circle of standing stones.
A cairn is a dolmen,( the stonetable I was talking about earlier), but covered by a barrow. It is hidden by an earthen mound and it looks like a small mountain. Barnenez and Gavrinis are two famous breton exemples. Here you can see the tumulus (barrow) of Dissignac close to Saint Nazaire, (Loire Atlantique).



All these buildings have been erected at several periods, some of the stones were carved with symbols. They probably have had different goals, but we don’t know for what. Some were graves, may be some others were temples but we can only guess, the stones could have religious functions, astronomical functions,... We also don’t know why our megalith builders destroyed them (menhir brisé de Locmariaquer). When Christianity begins to appear in Brittany, the stones are already used for pagan rituals, and the Church doesn’t like it. They try to christanize it and carved christian cross or others christian symbols on it.



4 – Were the Egyptian pyramides already built when our ancestors were carrying their menhirs.
Well, some of the breton buildings are much older. We know it surely since the 50’s when carbon 14 was found. And we finally discover that they are really old. The neolithic men built the megalitic buildings between – 5000 and – 2000 BC. Our Egyptian friends began their pyramids around - 3000 when our Bretons are megalith specialists. The megalith time lasted 3000 years. And the buildings done are quite different : short corridors, long corridors, square, circular chambers…



5 - Menhirs , dolmens and other megalithic buildings were built by
- a Celts
- b Druids

a – During the XVIIIth century when the “scientists” began to look at those strange constructions, they thought that the Celts built them. We know now thanks to Carbon 14 that they are much older as Celts arrived in Brittany around 500 BC.
b – Caesar wrote about the druids in their stonetemples but they just used it and did not built it.


6 – In Brittany we say that Pantagruel, and his friends let menhirs everywhere ?

May be you don’t know who is Pantagruel. he is a hero of a book from Rabelais, a French writer from the XVI th century. He is part of the French folklore. Pantagruel, a jovial fellow, is a giant with an enormous appetite, and he is good-humoured.
He is the one who left a tooth in Saint Suliac (menhir de Saint Suliac, Ille et Vilaine). He took a gravelout of his shoe and let it fall in Fort Lalatte,another one in Cap Frehel ...


7 – Others say that the fairies did it !!!
They actually did the dolmen called la Roche aux Fées, that explains its name fairyrock. Look at the work they’ve done with the stones !!!



We don’t have any written signs for this civilization and archeologists guess every time they discover something new. They think now that the settled agricultural communities, that erected the buildings, were quite organized. They probably had a leader and asked the other communities around to help them to built the monument. So the monument was a common work : it needed the help of geologists (stones were not choosen at random and were often extracted far from the place where they wanted to build the monument), engineers for the architecture, astronomists to position the building…they did not need mason as the building are done without mortar.
Some experiences have been done to try to carry the stones : in 1979 at Stonehenge, about hundred men succeded in towing a 32 metric tons stone, supported by logs and using vegetal ropes.
To extract the stones, they probably were introducing small pieces of wood in the crevices of the blocks, and swollen with water, it did fissure the block. What a job!!!


8 – The megalithic architecture was born in Brittany ?
No, it was not but the alignments of Carnac are a famous place because of his high number of stones ( about 3000 and specialists guess that they were much more, may be 10 000). You can see megaliths in many other places in the world, close to us in Corsica, in Sardinia, Malta, Majorca… but also in Asia or South America.


9 – There are just 5 to 10% menhirs left in Brittany ?
Yes, that’s right. During the XIXth century, the “learned society” wanted to study the past and were carrying out excavations. These excavations were destructives because they were just dismantling the sites and razed it after. And also for many centuries, people used the stones to build their houses, later to do the roads. They did not care of culture and inheritage at that time.


10 – Why don’t we find bones under breton stones ?

Well, because the dogs came first !!! Some of them were burial chambers and you find no bones because the soil in Brittany is acid and « eat » the bones. Flints, pottery, pearls,arrows…were found in the megalithic constructions.


11 – What were those stones used for ?
We can only guess, they must have had a religious purpose. Standing stones may be calendars, markers of territory … Dolmens or cairns were burials sites…

Read it in French : Menhirs, dolmens, cromlechs et autres cairns en Bretagne : testez vos connaissances,

La fête des mégalithes...

Pleslin-Trigavou is a small village that got married several years ago. Yes, these two parishes wanted to be one and each had a beautiful heritage to give as a dowry : Pleslin is the 3rd megalithic site in Brittany (it has 4000 years) and hundreds of bronze axes were found in Trigavou last century, which are 3000 years ....

A union of history and heritage, so ...

Have you heard of la fête des mégalithes end of july ?
And do you know what it celebrates ?
Is it to honor the fairies?
Or to commemorate the druids?
Or to perpetuate a tradition of the nineteenth century?

The megalithic site, listed since 1887, is certainly very different from the Neolithic period : we can see now 65 standing stones, arranged in 5 rows and oriented as in Carnac, East – West but it used to be different. Because today the stones are lying, they were menhirs (standing stones). And therefore the site looks like a field of rocks (Champ de Roches) and is less impressive…

Imagine if all those tons were standing ...

How did they get here, these stones ? It is the eternal question, the Neolithic suspense... but I have a clue: the Mont Saint Michel ...

Oh, it already existed!
That's the story : The fairies were carrying stones to build the Mont-Saint-Michel. Tired-it 's heavy-, they got rid of them here in the Field rocks.



Next to it a collection of oak trees (lots of different species) remind us that standing stones are also the domain of druids. Later around 300 BC, Celts reused the standing stones and this Champ des Roches will be the place for new beliefs … Legends and myths will also survive till now… Probably rituals that might seem strange today took place then.
Through these rituals the Celts tried to communicate with the supernatural and the Other World.

Opposite, there is a large area to maintain the tradition?



Around 1850, a very old tradition was the pretext for a village fête for the inhabitants of Pleslin and other neighbours during the day of Saint John and Saint Peter. Celebrations, banquets were probably too pagan for the priests of the parish who tried unsuccessfully to stop these rites.

So la Fête des mégalithes, what is it done for ?

Read it in French : Les menhirs de Pleslin-Trigavou, Cotes-d'armor, Bretagne

Once you ‘ve crossed the bridge, walk up the street and soon you are in front of the priory looking like some centuries ago...




The first abbey Saint Magloire was erected in 850. Nominoë, first King of Brittany gave land and money to the monks to settle the monastery. The first one was in wood but it didn’t last long…



The church is dedicated to Saint Magloire, an holy Breton from across the Channel who arrived in Brittany at the end of the 6C. Magloire was the bishop of Dol, one of the nine breton bishopric, he retired in Sark (Channel island). The abbey was founded once the relics of Saint Magloire were brought back in Brittany. This time the church was built in stone but it did not resist to the Norman attacks. The monks left the place for Paris and came back much later during the 11C.

The nowadays church is a mixture of buildings of different times. It has stones from the 11C, taken from Corseul, a city some kilometers away. Corseul was one of the Roman capital, 5 to 8000 inhabitants were living there. After the Roman, the old capital became less important or even an ordinary small town. As it was already expensive to build in stone… the old Roman city became a stone quarry…



The foundations are from the 12C and the 13C – the front of the church is romanesque and each century will add its piece to the building.

The abbey is a rectangle and during the 14C and the 15C they added a chapel where the important families of Dinan were buried. It has been restored during the 19C and works still go on.



Inside the church the chapel shelters the graves of the Lords of Dinan, the family Beaumanoir. The chapels were at that time the possession of famous families and they were buried there (14C and 15C recumbent statues).



The 13C stoup with carved heads was used to bathe the young children during their baptism.



Next to the church, a 15C doorway



leads you to the closter (17C)



with its square pillars.



It was used as a passage to go from one place to another in the priory and in its center there is a nice garden…

North you’ll see one of the two best kept refectories of Brittany.



The second is at Paimpol (monastery of Beauport). This 13C building is gothic, with its large stainedglass windows showing the Rance estuary. It is the oldest building of the priory and it has been restored between 1987 and 1991. The 17C dormitory houses are on the first floor.



During the 18C, the King Louis XV decided to close the abbey. The French Revolution sold it to a family who lived there for 30 years. It then became a brewery, a canvas manufacture… and a classroom for young girls. As it was in ruins, the council of Léhon wanted to restore it to use it as the parish church.
At the end of the 19C, the works began. Nowadays the priory belongs to the Council and is used for religious purpose. In the buildings of the priory, a museum shows you the life of the monastery.



The priory of Léhon was a Benedictine monastery. The monastic life of the order was a mixture of work (agriculture, writing...) and prayers. The first Benedictine covent was founded by St. Benedict of Nursia in Italy (529). He explained the Rules of his future Order in a small book of 73 chapters. The Benedictine Order became very popular in Europe quite quickly.

Each priory is autonomous. The abbot rules his church following the Benedictine rules, he has total authority over the monks and represents the Christ in the community. Monks have a shaved head and wear the scapular (long piece of canvas).

The place is free and open all year long. The buildings have signs in English explaining the story of the priory. To visit the museum, you have to ask for the timetable at the tourist office.



Read it in French : Balade à l'abbaye de Léhon dans une petite cité de caractère des Côtes d'Armor (Bretagne)

When I was walking on the seafront at La Baule, I saw a sign that attracts my attention : war cemetery. War cemeteries are quite usual in Normandy or at Verdun but here in La Baule, a place of watersports and leisure…
So I went to see it. And it is not an American but a British cemetery from the second World War.

It is hidden in a housing estate close to La Baule aerodrom. But it is part of another town la Baule Escoublac.

You may not know that we are no more in Brittany (administrative region) . In fact we are in the historical Brittany, that means the one that used to be the Duchy of Brittany. Loire Atlantique (which is the name of the department where La Baule is) does not belong anymore to Brittany but Pays de Loire. Explanation : During WWII, in 1941, Pétain (the leader of the occupied France at that time) decided to reorganise French regions for economic and strategic reasons. He wanted the department Loire Atlantique to be part of the Pays de Loire. The Loire flows to Nantes (capital of Loire Atlantique), but Nantes has been capital of the Duchy of Brittany… Anyway, the decision took effect in 1955, much later. But till now some Bretonese want it back...

Let’s go back to our cemetery. British people take care of it. More than 300 soldiers are buried there, most of them quite young. They died in 1940 and 1942 and a sign explains both in French and in English what happened to those combatants.



Why 1940 ? France lost the war and British troops are hurrying to Saint Nazaire, a port on the French Atlantic coast for the evacuation. Several ships are there, one of them is The Lancastria.
The requisitionned cruise liner is overloaded (survivors talk about 6 to 9000 passengers) and is sunk by the Luftwaffe (German Airforce). Probably between 4 to 7000 people died. It occured the day of the French capitulation (17th of june 1940) and Winston Churchill decided not to talk about it, he didn’t want to demoralize more his citizens. It is probably the worst British maritime disaster of all time.
In 1942, Saint Nazaire is a German naval base for submarines. The British wanted to destroy the only dry lock capable of repairing battleships. The soldiers, who rendered unusable the lock till the end of the war, were Commandos from UK, but also New Zealand,



Australia, from occupied countries such as Poland…



Operation Chariot was successful.

All the pictures of the graves.



Read it in French : Cimetières de guerre de la seconde guerre mondiale en Bretagne

Nuts, walnuts... in French, they have the same name… they're good and healthy, full of omega-3 fatty acids… and of Omega 6 fatty acids... These are the good unsaturated fatty acids, good fats for proper functioning of the cardiovascular system... A good natural food supplement ... that must be used without abuse!

For harvesting, you have two solutions : either the tree is yours or not :

- Or you pick them and then read the following passage directly
- Either you have a walnut tree in your garden and there are some rules to follow to respect the next harvest.
It is better to stick nuts rather than waiting to pick them up.
- Why ?
Simply because sticking them, popular French proverbs say that the harvest will be better next year ...

Whatever the method, remember that the husks (the green envelope around the nut) blackened fingers. It must be removed.

Preservation and storage
Once harvested, the nuts have to be dried: ventilate them regularly, stir them so they do not rot. Store in a cool place.

Just peel the amount of walnuts you need because once shelled, they go rancid very quickly. Keep in the fridge and eat them in a few days.
The recipe? A German recipe !!! Easy and tasty !

It is a recipe from my German friend Karine. But all the ingredients are so common that it could be a Breton dish. The only concern is to peel them… It’s a bit long… it depends ... if you've already tried the hips or the chestnuts ... Wallnuts are just to easy, it’s a breeze ...



Ingredients

500g potatoes good to mash
150 grams of nuts (peeled) 30 to 40 whole nuts
150 grams grated cheese (Emmentaler or comté depending on your tastes)
3 eggs (you must beat the egg whites)
Pepper and Salt

It is good plain like that. If you want a more tasty flavor, add a few leaves of basil or sage, finely chopped (the dried herbs powder is less good but it works well).

Cut the potatoes in pieces and cook them. Peel and mash to a puree.
Reduce about two-thirds of the nuts into small pieces (the robot to do anything does it very well) and keep the rest for decoration.
Pour and mix nuts, cheese, egg yolks, salt and pepper, basil or sage.
Whisk the egg whites and add them.
Butter a dish and pour the batter. Bake at 6 (180 °) for a half hour to 40 minutes when the pie is brownish.
Serve with a winter salad .

Destination: vacation, leisure and sports ...

Walking, cycling or horse tourism... Brittany is a nice place to tour... Tro Breizh (tour of Brittany in Breton language) is a beautiful tour of a few hundred miles ... you can do on foot, on bicycle and on horse-back ... in one go (and then some days are not enough, you need several weeks ...) or more stages (and then take the opportunity to visit some nice places), with your family or solo, in couple. .. stoping by a crêperie or a nice restaurant, a B&B or a pleasant cottage, a camping on the coast....

Since 1994, Les Chemins du Tro Breiz (The Paths of Tro Breizh) organizes walks around Small Britain. They invite you to tour for a week... every year. As there are around 700 kilometers, you'll achieve it in 7 years. It is our paths to Santiago !



Historically, the Tro Breizh connects the dioceses of the seven founding saints of Brittany. This medieval pilgrimage was a walk around Small Britain to pray the saints who evangelized the region.

The legend says that those Saints were septuplets and therefore brothers (they should have been killed at birth by their mother Domnonia ... because she believed twins were the children of sin). But fortunatly, the seven brothers (Seizh Breur) have been protected by God. For their safety, they were sent to Brittany. Once there, they evangelized Britain and created 7 bishoprics : Corentin in Quimper, Patern in Vannes, Saint Pol Aurélien at Saint Pol de Léon, Samson in Dol-de-Bretagne, Tugdual at Treguier, Brieuc and Malo in their respective cities Saint Brieuc and Saint Malo.
The pilgrims of the time did the pilgrimage in about a month (over 600 km).

All Breton Christians had to do it once ... or they had to do it once dead ... and then, even for a good Catholic, it was very long ... The legend recalls that the believer who had not performed it alive had to do it advancing a length of coffin a night ... It took quite a while.

Let's go back to our tour : Dol is one of the stages of the Tro Breizh. Saint Samson is the patron saint of the city and one of the founding saints of Brittany. He has its granite sculpture at Carnoët in the Holy Valley. Sculpted by Jacques Dumas, he is represented with a mermaid.



Jacques Dumas explains the legend of Saint Samson : his mother rescued once a mermaid who then gave to this women a son (she was too old to have one).

Samson was born in Wales (as you know now) and emigrated ...
He is a peacemaker between animals and with men too... He commands the birds that destroy crops, he hunts the serpent which occupies the cave where he wishes to move ... He also works in humans problems and rules the political conflicts between the Franks and the Britons. He created the diocese of Dol. He died in about 565 Dol. His feast day is July 28.



In West Britain, at the other end of the Tro Breizh, you'll meet Saint Pol Aurélien (David Puech is the artist). This saint is the source of many miracles in the area .... Thanks to him the island of Batz was released from the dragon ....He also comes from Wales, arrived at Ouessant and finally settled in Saint Pol de Leon, where he left his name.

Enjoy your tour... walking, cycling or riding horses...

Read this article in French : Tour de Bretagne à pied, à cheval ou à vélo : idée de vacances sportives en Bretagne

TRUE OU FALSE

The island of Batz was connected to the mainland during the Iron Age (8th to 6th BC)
A village is buried in the east of the island
The island has never sent a soldier to the Army
The lighthouse of Batz has 500 steps
Enez Vaz means Dragon Island
Algae have replaced the trees on the island
British people settled fortifications on Batz
The island is a paradise for early vegetables and organic farmers

By bike or on foot, go and get the answers ...



The island of Batz was connected to the mainland during the Iron Age (8th to 6th BC) ?
Yes, you could walk there at low tide. Last century, thirty neolithic graves (4000 years old) were discovered by Georges Delaselle, the founder of the colonial garden. He dug a hole, protected by a hedge of cypress and pine trees, on the east end of the island (where the garden is now) to house his exotic plants.

A village is buried in the east of the island.
Yes, the present village (where the ferry arrives) is recent.
Until the 17th century, the village was located on the east side of the island, where are the prehistoric tombs. This place may have been continuously inhabited since the Iron Age, as other traces of human presence were found. In any case, the village is covered by 6 feet of dunes.

You’ll understand better if you go to the chapel of St. Anne. This Romanesque church is half hidden in the dunes.



Its square pillars replaced the monastery built by Pol Aurelian, a Welsh arrived in the 5th century to convert Britain. Towards 530, he created a monastery then destroyed by the Vikings in 878.
At the end of the 11th century, when calm has returned the monks rebuilt a church.
When the sands were threatening, it has been gradually abandoned for the Kernoc’h bay. The ruins of the church have been used as an artillery warehouse shortly before and after the French Revolution. Today a mass in the open air is celebrated for Sainte Anne (Holy Ann) end of July The chapel and the cemetery are listed since 1980.

The island has never sent a soldier to the Army.
That is how the tourist guide Joanne (1884) presents the island. On this island, all men are sailors. The soil is grown exclusively by women. And some of them let their name in the history of Batz.
A native Yves Trémintin began to serve the State as a pilot. Soon, he fought with courage against pirates and lost a leg. He finished his life on his island limping ...
There is also a Portuguese privateer ... Balidar, who hated the English and therefore helped the French during the Revolution ... With his vessel, he was hidden in the channel and awaited the enemy ... The Batziens (inhabitants of Batz) prevented him when ships were in sign and he attacked.



The lighthouse of Batz has 500 steps.
It was built between 1836 and 1852. But you have to deserve it… 210 steps to climb…



Enez Vaz means Dragon Island
No, Bazh means in Breton language stick. And it has no link with the legend of the island…
There once was a dragon ... who was terrible.
In the early centuries of the Christian era, Pol Aurelian arrived in Batz to convert the island. The governor of the island begged the saint to set the island free from the monster ...
With the help of another gentleman, he went dressed in his priestly vestments, to the lair of the beast. There, without being intimidated by the wrath of the animal, he surrounded the neck of the dragon with a stole*. And led him to the sea where it disappeared.

On the north of the island, the place known as "Toul ar sarpent", the Trou du Serpent, still has the claw of the dragon printed in the stone.



The two heroes were rewarded. The gentleman was given the privilege to go to church with the sword to the side. As for Pol, he received many presents : a palace that he turned into a monastery. He also made some more miracles : a spring gushed out and healed 3 blind men, two mutes and a paralyzed.
Around the year 600, he was buried in Saint-Pol-de-Léon.
*The stole is retained in the new church of Batz.

Sometimes in Brittany, in legends, snakes replace dragons (because dragons were frequently linked with fairies and fairies are not working all over). The serpent is also more familiar and therefore more credible. These legendary figures are in any case often a symbol of the pagan religions that have to disappear...

Algae have replaced the trees on the island ...
There were very few trees on the island ... Islanders used algae and cow pats dried in the sun as combustible to cook or heat the houses (Tourist guide Joanne, 1884).
The more difficult was to harvest them… at low tide or in water up to the knee, women pulled wrack out of the sea ... Not always easy ... being a woman in Batz!

Today the harvest is done by tractors



or with scoubidous these strange boats, with long arms that gather laminars on the seabed.

British people settled fortifications on Batz
Yes, there are many vestiges of fortification against the English…
4 batteries (18th C) used to defend the Bay of Morlaix : the Penn Ar C'hleguer one is after the exotic garden, the battery Bilvidic, on the opposite edge and the other two on the remaining points.
There are also remnants of the Atlantic Wall (German defensive system of the Second World War) with bunkers .... But the vegetation today hides them well ....

The island is a paradise for early vegetables and organic farmers
The parcels are sheltered by small walls or hedges and fertilized by seaweed. Potatoes, fennel, rhubarb grow ... with a few weeks ahead… early agriculture. 3 harvests a year, sometimes the collection is done by hand.
Half of the island is grown in organic agriculture.
The island deserves its label…

Read it in french : Les histoires de l'ile de Batz : prétexte à une balade

The area around Guérande (gwen = white in Breton and rann = countries) has been known since the dawn of time, for the salt activity. For centuries even milleniums, salt has been THE mean of food preservation.

- Since when?
- Where?
- How does it work?
- Natural Process?
- Why do we see colourful marshes?
- Harvesting
- Fleur de sel and cooking salt
- Visit the saltmarshes

Since when?
Long before the construction of those salt marshes, we go back to the Iron Age..., another technique was used for the production of sea salt…
Sand or clay salt was collected during the summer and « washed » to extract a highly concentrated brine. It was then poured into pots and heated in clay oven until crystallization of salt. This technique was widespread throughout the Armorican coast, it even led to a deforestation.

The current saltmarshes began before the 9th century and lasted for several centuries. Around the year 1500, the marshes reached 80% of the current surface. The latest were built around 1800. In the middle of 19th century, a gradual decline started for different reasons : competition from the salt mine, lower consumption of salt as a product of conservation and improvement of transport by land.
The salt of Guérande used to be trade throughout Brittany, tax free until Napoleon. The Emperor decided to tax it and it was the beginning of the decline of salt activity. And the last attack came with the refrigerator in the 70’s.

But never say never… as we say in French. The amateurs of Guérande little by little, with energy and enthusiasm will help the activity to recover. They created a training course and a cooperative to promote quality with a label (the french Label rouge). Today around 250 workers live on the salt marshes.

Where ?
Until recently, the whole region was a large salt marsh. But the coastal villages Le Pouliguen and La Baule soon preferred buildings and tourism as the salt activity. There are still 2,000 hectares for the production.

How it works?
The principle is simple. Channels that feeds the water reservoirs with sea water using the tides. Salty water will evaporate in different dams till there are only a few centimeters of seawater left. That is the last step, where the salt crystallizes and produces the fleur de sel and coarse salt.



Natural process?
Yes, sea, sun and wind !!! And the know-how of the workers.
It is a 100% natural product from a listed site! explains Ronan Loison, director of Terre de Sel. Unlike refined salts, the one from Guérande undergoes no washing, no chemical treatment or additives. After harvest, it is just sifted, milled and packaged.

Why do we see colourful marshes?
Red micro-organisms and algae live in seawater.



Harvesting?
The harvest (12,000 tons of salt per year) takes place from June to September. Here are salt granaries from yesterday



and today ...



The rest of the time, you must maintain the marshes.

Fleur de sel and cooking salt
The cooking salt is most of the harvest. If it is gray, it still contains a hint of earthy substance. The best for chefs is the flower of salt.. These few kilo are harvested and collected separately. For 12,000 kg of gray salt, you’ll get 80 kg of fleur de sel!

Visit the salt marshes?
First of all because it is an exceptional heritage (listed since 1996). Then because it is beautiful, yes it is ! Also because you’ll discover nice animals and flora. And finally, to understand better how salt is produced.

In the village of Saillé, former village of salt, the maison des paludiers is a museum. There is also one at Batz sur Mer. At Guérande Terre de Sel, the cooperative, offers guided tours of the marsh. And in La Turballe visits are made in carriage. (00 33 //(0)6.26.45.25.58 )



Read it in French : Les marais salants (salines) de Guérande

You’re visiting Britanny and specially the South Coast. You have to go to the Gulf of Morbihan, a small sea surrounded by peninsulas. The place is really unusual with its inland sea, an incredibly high number of islands... it's worth it.
And on the presqu'île de Rhuys, one of the peninsula that closes the Gulf, you’re close to an historical place the tumulus de Tumiac, where the legend says that Caesar did watch the naval battle between the most powerful tribe of Armor the Veneti and the Roman fleet.



Gallic War. Here we are, back in 56 before Christ when Caesar decided to conquer Brittany.
In 57, Roman already tried to dominate the peninsula. One year later, when they came back, they had to do it again. Veneti did resist and were known as good sailors. Ceasar decided to attack them, here on the South Coast. The legend said the Emperor watched the encounter from the top of this hill.



220 large sailing ships faced the Roman fleet, which was easy to move. And Romans had sickles tied to long poles that were quite useful to cut the sail down. The sailing ship could not move anymore and the soldiers just had to board the ship. And that ‘s how Caesar won this unexpected struggle… and the wind did not blow to help the Armor tribe.

That’s the legend… and now the truth about this little mound. It is on the main road that goes from Sarzeau to Port Navalo. Stop on the parking place and go on a small path that leads you to the top of the hill.



You can no more visit the underground… because of degradation…

86 m high, 20 m diameter of clay. Underneath, there is a grave (5000 before Christ).



A stone coffin 4 meters long and 2 meters wide where an important man from that time was burried. In 1853 excavations did reveal human bones which is rare in Brittany –acid soils do “eat” bones-.

Read it in French : La butte de César : légende historique ou site préhistorique du Golfe du Morbihan