Why Visit Morbihan (Brittany)?

 Part of the Carnac alignment of standing stones (menhirs).

We recently spent a very successful short break in Morbihan, staying in a cabin (Fr. mobile home) in a caravan park at Carnac. Morbihan is a county (Fr. département) in the south of Brittany (Fr. Bretagne) on the Atlantic coast, around the Gulf of Morbihan. Inland it is agricultural, on the maritime side it is fishing and pleasure boat ports. It is a beautiful part of France, where the hydrangeas are blue and the stone is granite. To my mind there are three main reasons for going to Morbihan:

 

Wild Foxgloves Digitalis purpurea (Fr. Digitale pourpre) were abundant on roadsides and woodland edges.

 

1. The prehistoric stone structures.

The number of prehistoric menhirs (standing stones), cairns (dry stone covered chamber tombs) and tumuli (earth covered tombs) is astonishing. They are everywhere! and each more interesting and intriguing than the next. We stayed across the road from the famous alignments of Carnac. Which is impressive enough, as it is several rows of standing stones which go on for some kilometres. But then we visited the island of Gavrinis, and got to go inside the cairn. The young archaeologist conducting the tour was excellent. After that we saw the related tombs across the water at Locmariaquer and then a few more that I don't even remember the name of. Some are publicly owned, carefully guarded by heritage professionals and there is an entry fee. Others are on private property and access is freely granted. They date from the time four to six thousand years ago that man was just settling down to live in small fixed communities rather than being nomadic. We were awestruck to be allowed inside these remarkable links with the distant past, and to be allowed to take photos. Frankly it beggars belief that Morbihan is not UNESCO World Heritage Listed for its prehistoric landscape.

 

The remains of a marvellous meal of Breton mussels (Fr. moules bretonne).

2. The distinctive Bretonne cuisine, in which dairy and seafood feature strongly.

Brittany has maintained its own culture and even its language rather better than some other regions of France. The list of gourmet delicacies that come from Brittany is long: kouign amann (butter cake); far breton (prunes in a thick pancake); palets, galettes and sablés bretons (plain biscuits); seafood especially shellfish (mussels, oysters, clams) and sardines; cider; salted butter; salted butter caramel; crèpes and galettes (savoury crèpes made with buckwheat flour); quatre quart (pound cake); cocos de Paimpol (dried white beans); andouille de Guémené (chitterlings); lait ribot (buttermilk); cotriade (fish soup); farz (pasta made from buckwheat flour); artichokes; strawberries; pink onions. Some of these have made it out of Brittany and can be encountered anywhere in France now, especially in places where Bretons migrated to, like the Montparnasse quartier of Paris. But others, whilst known to foodlovers, have to be discovered in their home territory. We had the best mussels we've ever eaten, quite by chance, by lobbing up to a restaurant on a small harbour because it was lunchtime and we were passing. No consulting of restaurant reviews, just a quick perusal of the menu board outside to check they did the kind of food we liked at the price we wanted to pay. Kouign Amann is a must have if you are in Brittany, and we bought ours from a small stall in Carnac market that was selling nothing else. 

 

 Le Grand Menhir at Locmariaquer fell not long after it was erected and broke into four enormous chunks.

3. Sailing and other water sports.

We didn't participate in any watersports this time, but it was clear that the Gulf of Morbihan is a paradise for anyone wanting to learn to sail or get to grips with sea canoeing, paddle boarding or kite surfing. It's a big protected inlet and there are hundreds of boats big and small moored in the many harbours. We saw yachts ranging from century old yawls that now take tourists out to islands for day trips, to enormously tall masted trimarans with the very latest in high tech sails [link]. Even if you know nothing about boats it's picturesque and alluring.

 

 Kouign Amann at the market in Carnac.

Once you've visited the area you know why hundreds of French families have holidayed there since the 19th century, even though Brittany is famous for weather which includes drizzly rain nearly every day. There is so much to do, so much opportunity to just relax and take it easy, and the visibility of the Breton culture means that you know you are not at home. The locals clearly rely on tourists for a significant chunk of their annual income, but the place has not been turned into a caricature of itself. Bretons are proud to speak their language and practice their culture and would do so whether there were tourists or not. I was interested to see that the SuperU supermarket in Carnac had an extensive selection of local produce, including ceramics, baked goods, drinks and caramels. It was a one stop souvenir shop as far as I was concerned and I bought a mug, some pommeau (an apple liqueur), beer, kouign amann (again...) and salted caramel sauce. At the market there was a stall selling the iconic stripey shirts that Bretons are stereotyped as wearing. Of course it was aimed at the tourists, but the locals do genuinely wear them too, so we bought one each. They are good quality and weren't expensive.

 

 Artichokes at Carnac market.

We had such a nice time we can't believe we never made it up there before, and we certainly have plans to return.

 

Caravan park. Our cabin was through the arch.

Some sort of aquatic exercise class. 

The photo makes it look as if it was very early in the morning, but in fact it was 10 am.

Part of the alignment of prehistoric standing stones at Carnac.

Embarking at Gavrinis Island.