Carnac Alignments (Carnac, France)

I found out about the Carnac alignments whilst browsing my Lonely Planet in the hotel room in Bretagne. They looked really fascinating so we decided to drive across Bretagne to see them.

It took us a couple of hours to drive down from Plougrescant, as we made several detours to see the famous Pink Granite Coast of Britanny. We didn’t really know what to expect in Carnac, but whatever it was we were expecting, it was not this.

Imagine Stonehenge. Then imagine Stonehenge stretching for miles and miles. And imagine million more stones. That’s the Carnac Alignments.

There are more than 3,000 stones, each weighing a ton. To quote Wikipedia:

“The more than 3,000 prehistoric standing stones were hewn from local rock and erected by the pre-Celtic people of Brittany, and are the largest such collection in the world…. The stones were erected.. probably around 3300 BC, but some may date to as old as 4500 BC....

..Modern myths were formed… a Christian myth.. held that they were pagan soldiers in pursuit of Pope Cornelius when he turned them to stone. Brittany..  local tradition claims that the reason they stand in such perfectly straight lines is that they are a Roman legion turned to stone by Merlin.”

At times like this, I really wished I were a millionaire so I could hire a helicopter to take aerial shots.

There is also a tumulus at the top of a nearby hill which is a must visit. 

House between the rocks (Plougrescant, France)

We did our second road trip to Bretagne specifically to see the house.

This house wins the ‘coolest house in the world’ competition hands down. The house is exactly what it says it is, a house between the rocks.

So: [ROCK]house[ROCK].

The house is called Castel Meur, and is off the coast of Plougrescant, Bretagne. It’s a private residence, so you won’t find signposts with little drawings telling you where it is. You just have to peer around every corner and sooner or later you will come across it.

You can actually drive up quite close to the house (a field away), and get a great view. Aim for “Le Site Naturel du Gouffre” on Google Maps.

There is a succinct history of the house on this site. It’s in French, but that’s what google translate is for.

Excuse my picture, my camera battery had died and it was Blackberry to the rescue (no wonder they are going bankrupt).

Caves of Remouchamps (Remouchamps, Belgium)

Des grottes de Remouchamps are really a hidden treasure in the Belgian ardennes. That is, if you like dark clammy spaces. I do.

The caves boast the world's longest continuous underground navigation (sounds a bit like the guiness record of fastest time to enter a suitcase (true story)). 

There is a boat ride that you can take on level 2 of the caves, with living creatures like frogs and shell fish in the water.

And on level 1, you'll see fossils with the most spectacular stalactices and stalacmites, rendered even more spectacular by the light show set up inside the caves.

i'll let the pictures speak for themselves.