quai de bejamin franklin (12. 553)

Returning to Belz, we stopped at the old eponymous fishing town straddling both banks of the river Auray—conversely the namesake likely being from Aula Régina applied to an older settlement from the Latin for royal court after the important shipping channel fell under the seigneurship of English king Henry II (confirmed by the Breton designation of An Alre—or simply Loc’h where the river can be raised to make it navigable to the sea.

The trade centre established in the older quarter is centred on the port of Saint-Goustan whose actuarial records extend back to the fourteenth century and document commerce in foodstuffs, cloth and Biscay steel. Expanded in the mid-1600s due to a more sophisticated commerce network, the new wharf was named later in honour of diplomat Benjamin Franklin who landed here on 3. December 1776to entreat France for support in their war of independence. Today the habour has been rehabilitated as a marina and a quasi estuary for water fowl and is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the region.

the carnac stones (12. 552)

Just a short drive away, we visited—I suspect revisited at least in part we'll have to check an earlier version of the blog, the monumental arrangement of prehistoric dolmen, menhir and burial chambers surrounding the village of Carnac (Karnag).

Three main groups of monoliths in the adjoining fields and forest at Menéc, Kermario (House of the Dead) and Kerlescan are aligned to mark the spring and winter solstices. Although escapingly ancient, dating to 4 500 BC, a pious legend surrounded them from the late Middle Ages (imagination insufficient for such time scales--see previously) that the discipline of the formation was owing to an enchantment cast by Pope Cornelius, an early pontiff serving just after the Decian persecutions, on a legion of pagan soldiers in pursuit—or alternatively by the wizard Merlin’s spell, Bretagne having its own Arthurian matter.

A bit removed from the main site, we discovered another ensemble of transept graves at Mané Kerioned including an underground chamber with an inscription.

synchronoptica

one year ago: exploring Maccagno (with synchronopticæ) 

ten years ago: assorted links to revisit, fidelity plus even more links to enjoy

eleven years ago: the importance of boredom, distinctions among German terms for immigration plus alternative currencies

twelve years ago: capitalism and moral bankruptcy 

fourteen years ago: advances in solar energy generation 

côte sauvage (12. 551)

Continuing south to the peninsula of Quiberon (Kiberen) just beyond the narrow isthmus (technically a spit of land called a tombolo as the island is joined to the mainland by a built up sandbar and not a strait proper, the link only dating to the eleventh century when deforestation unleashed the deposits) at Fort Penthièvre, a French military training base that was captured by Nazi German as an extreme reach of the Atlantic Wall, taking a trail that led through a nature reserve (the vegetation ruined by over tourism with arrival of the train to the resort town on the southern most tip)along a windswept rocky coast direct on the ocean, beach attractions rare due to its rough waves and untamed landscape.

route des menhirs (12. 550)

Though there’s a continuous trail through the region, about ten minutes south begins a really high concentration of megalithic monuments, mostly standing stones and dolmen (tombs) and tumuli (burial mounds), starting in the village of Kerzerho in the commune of Erdeven (An Ardeven) stretching all the way to the peninsula of Quiberon in the Bay of Biscay.

Over eleven hundred stones are placed in a narrow area stretching for two kilometers and bear witness to a number of arrangements and alignments which have not all been triangulated with a purpose, one stone circle cutting across the highway, some corresponding with the rising sun and seemingly part of a much larger structure.

These monuments were erected by Bronze Age pre-Celtic people and are thought to be a form of ancestor worship, new stones stood up for each successive generation, but there are no definitive theories or archaeological evidence as the benchmark of scholarship, Stonehenge, if fully removed by the transition of Mesolithic hunter-gatherers to settled farming culture.

synchronoptica

one year ago: Lukmanier pass (with synchronopticæ) plus arriving at Lake Maggiore

ten years ago: assorted links to revisit, the concept of the personal and unperishing soul plus the passing a chimeric lamb

eleven years ago: a visit to Koblenz 

twelve years ago: a mistaken anchor 

thirteen years ago: endonyms and exonyms in sport 

île de saint cado (12. 549)

Walking the opposite direction along the shore front Moulin des Oies from the campground, we first came to the dolmen known as Boccénic Vras (the geese-mill) on an outcropping, one of a few remaining prehistoric megalithic structures which were formerly as numerous as the preserved Carnac Stones not far from here but many of the granite monuments were used for construction material for lighthouses and churches, continuing through the habour and to the island of Welsh holy man Cardoc (Enez Kado), whose remote hermitage became a monastery during the high Middle Ages.

The rather remarkably engineered dike bridge connecting it to the mainland predates that period and was, according to legend, built by the devil in the course of one night. For his troubles, Satan claimed the first soul to cross—for which the saint volunteered but threw a black car onto the bridge at the last minute. About a hundred architectural marvels in France have the same demonic attribution.

Credited with the founding of many churches and abbeys throughout Breton, Cornwall and Scotland, Cado / Cardoc is fêted on 21 September (bay-dee-ya) and his Norman-era vita is considered one document that independently corroborates the historicity of the figure of King Arthur—prayed to for intervention for glandular issues and deafness. The church and supporting village was chiefly a fishing community and the monumental cavalry dates from 1832 and the very photogenic Maison de Nichtarguér, an 1894 construction built for the caretaker of an oyster farm.

ria de étel (12. 548)

The port community known for its sardine and later tuna and mackerel fishing is named for the river (Stêr an Intel) that empties here into the gulf of Morbihan, and we owed the tip to a mural of the campsite’s bathrooms, learning such a picturesque ensemble of beached shipwrecks did exist and were very near by.

Treacherous sand bars in the shallows at the river’s mouth claimed many boats over the years and walking past the dunes afforded some nice views of the bay and the decaying hulls in the foreground.

synchronoptica

one year ago: master medium Patience Worth (with synchronopticæ) plus a blocked alpine pass

eleven years ago: the diplomatic corps written exam and educational standards 

twelve years ago: GCHQ and dragnet surveillance 

fifteen years ago: boycotting Big Oil 

sixteen years ago: an homage to towels 

mor-bihan (12. 547)

Departing from Chion by Orléans, we made it to our primary destination in Morbihan (Breton for small see) and one of the few departments that retained its historic designation after the French Revolution reflagged subnational classifications in order to promote beyond the city of Vannes and on the gulf coast in the commune of Belz.

Legend has it that there are three hundred sixty-five islands here and the number of islets and jetties depends on how one counts them, with many too small for development much less visitors, it probably only numbers forty or so, far less than one for each day of the year, but who‘s counting?

We only took a short walk along a narrow footpath leading out of the campsite beyond its own saltwater basin and have a lot to explore and experience in this beautiful place.

synchronoptica

one year ago: Putin and Kim hold a summit (with synchronopticæ), the premiere of Evita plus the estate of Jim Henson selling off its Hollywood lot

thirteen years ago: the quasi-public character of private pensions 

fourteen years ago: more on the Greek economic crisis 

château de chinon (12. 546)

For the second leg of our journey, we returned to the Loire valley traveling in the direction of south Bretagne through Sens and Tours, bypassing most of the ensemble of châteaux but found a picturesque campsite on the opposite bank of Vienne with a direct view of the town‘s fortified castle, the last one of its kind in the region. Built on the foundations of a fifth century Gallo-Roman fort, the castle‘s present form dates from the late tenth century when the dukes of Anjou, aligned with the House of the Plantagenets—thus, England, took the town and its defensive bulwark from the king of France, and was expanded under Henry II, securing his favoured residence from his rebellious brother, Geoffrey, the Count of Nantes.

England held this region only util the early thirteen century when Phillip II took back Chinon after a monthlong siege and was thereafter, with some intervening periods of neglect—infamously as a detention facility for the Knight Templar while awaiting judgment and sentencing once they had become too powerful, particularly in the eyes of the French aristocracy—used as the French royal court through the sixteen hundreds.

Joan of Arc was granted an audience with King Charles V during the Hundred Years War over the line of succession and legitimate heir to the throne and presented her vision from God for intervention in the Battle Orléans to expel English influence and political meddling once and for all. After cross examining her sanity and sincerity, Joan was granted command of the army.

synchronoptica

one year ago: Ursula K Le Guin’s webpages (with synchronopticæ) plus assorted links to revisit

ten years ago: the Queen and consort visit Germany plus more links to enjoy

twelve years ago: Western expectations of Türkiye 

thirteen years ago: allowable letters on vehicle registration plates 

fourteen years ago: Chinese copies of European destinations