Motorbiking trip to Carnac??

[Andrew]

Well I got the bike (BMW F 650 S) out for its MOT a few weeks ago--- last year I did 200 miles on it -- this year I have already made 2000 -- must be the weather!! I have been looking at a short trip to Carnac on the Brest peninsula to look at the megalithic stones their - --- I wondered if anyone had anyone had any information on the area??

 

[jalapino]

Nice bike you have there, I bought a Suzuki gsxr 750 srad few months ago, and pileing the miles on

 

[Caroline]

haven't got any information but wanted to say have a good trip

 

[Redkite]

Brittany is a lovely region, but I'd advise waiting until September when the peak school holiday season is finished, as places like Carnac are swarming with tourists! Last time we went we took a longer ferry crossing (Plymouth-St Malo I think) to cut down on driving time, but I imagine you might want the journey on the open road to be part of the fun of the trip! 🙂

 

[Copepod]

Trophywench has biked a lot, so may well be able to help you.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Had a lovely holiday in that area in my teens. Can't remember much about it, but a quick look at Google maps reminded me of Concarneau (old medieval town) which is pretty close by.

If memory serves the first weekend in Aug is a bit of a major holiday in France and many (most?) families head off on hols.

 

[Redkite]

If memory serves the first weekend in Aug is a bit of a major holiday in France and many (most?) families head off on hols.

Yes, don't travel in early August! We spent a whole weekend in stop-start traffic on one of the main southbound routes - not fun! But there lies the advantage of a motorbike, you can weave through the standing cars and not get held up....

 

[yorksman]

I have been looking at a short trip to Carnac on the Brest peninsula to look at the megalithic stones their - --- I wondered if anyone had anyone had any information on the area??

No, I wish I had. It's on my to do list. If you ever tour these sites again, I can recomment the Road of the Megalith Culture in northern Germany. The site is german but you'll get an idea from the photos. There is a map of the route here. I've been to a few of them such as the Pestruper gravefield. There are 33 'stations' in total.

The Megalithic Culture starts about 4000 BC, ie. 1000 years after the start of the New Stone Age or Neolithic. The flint tools of the neolithic are different from the preceding period, the middle stone age or Mesolithic but around 5000 BC at the onset of the Neolithic, we start to see farming communities. People stop moving around, ie hunter gathers and start to make more permanent places. It lasts until about 1800 BC when we started to use bronze tools, ie the bronze age. All these dates vary from place to place by the way, it didn't happen all over europe at the same time.

The term megalithic, Big Stones, doesn't imply a time span like the neolithic. It is part of the Neolithic. What it refers to is the period of building large monuments, mostly to do with burials and found largely in western Europe. Around the start of the bronze age, people stopped building them and, in northern Germany and Denmark for example, they started building huge burial mounds and long bed graves. We have some good examples of the mounds or Howes in Yorkshire, such as this one at Duggleby:

The builders of the various large stone monuments lived in many parts of europe:

Have a look at the Megalithic Portal.

 

[PattiEvans]

I had a holiday near Carnac a few years ago. The stones are definitely worth a visit. We also went down the peninsula to Quiberon and caught a ferry over to Belle Isle for the day. We liked the pretty island so much we had a week's holiday there the following year. The Golf du Morbihan (inland sea) is very interesting too... there are a couple of islands that you can reach by boat and where you can take long walks, or hire bikes and ride round. Or just take a boat trip around the Golf. Vannes, situated on the Golf is an interesting mediaeval town well worth a visit. Plus there is an outstanding Sunday market at Vannes. There are some good restaurants in Carnac Plage.

I'd echo what the others have said about early August. It will be difficult (and expensive) to get accommodation during that period.