Post by Deleted on Feb 27, 2009 12:43:47 GMT -1
Hi everyone,
Not sure if it is allowed (feel free to close the thread wheb it isn't) but here a quick copy-past from my weblog, about a 'pilgrimage' I made yesterday with a friend, to Carnac...For anyone who might be interested.
W00t, I am Very Happy!
Yesterday I've been to Karnag with Anna, and it was Absolutely Great. We left at the barbarious time of 9.14 PM, with the train to An Alré (Auray for the Gallaoued). And in the bus from Alré to Karnag I was already bouncing and jumping, and so was Anna, because we were just too enthousiastic seeing trees, grass, very little houses, and the sea! For the bus from Alré to Karnag passes An Drinded, or La Trinité sur Mer. It was high water when we passed, and the port was full of pleasure boats gaily shining in the sun. We had a great day of unashamed tourism, and I guess I hadn't seen as many historical monuments in a day sinds I went to Rome with school. So here it goes...
When we arrived in Karnag, we firstly went to see the village church, the church of...saint Korneli, my patron saint! He is also the patron saint of horned cattle (Cornelius in Latin means 'the horned one') and standing stones, and above the mayor entrance of the church there is a statue of saint Korneli with two cows. His legend says that, when he was fleeing for the Roman soldiers pursueing him, he went through the land with a cow on each side of him, and where he went the crops grew at supersonic speed: what was sown one day beared fruit the day after. This way he deceived the Romans: when those asked to some peasant whether he had seen Korneli, the peasant answered 'yes, when I was sowing this field of wheat'. The Romans, seeing a field ready to be harvested, decided to leave Korneli as he was, as he surely had passed more than half a year before! Later they changed mind, though, as another story of the saint tells that, when he was fleeing for the Romans, he finally arrived at the seashore and had no place to go. He then prayed to God, and transformed the Roman soldiers in stones. These stones are still to be seen in Carnac, standing neatly in lines....a local legend has it that once a year, in the longest night, the stones re-transform to soldiers and go bathing in a river nearby. Whoever sees them doing this turns mad, dies, or transforms into a stone himself.
After we had seen the church, we went to search the sacred well. All old churches in that region have a sacred well attached to it, and with the help of a local homeless ('and what are you going to wish at the well?') we found it some two streets further away. It was a nice old well with a little stone building on it, and both Anna and I tossed a coin in it and made a wish. Of course I am not going to tell you what I wished, or the wish will not come true!
From the village church we went to st. Michel's chapel, not to visit the chapel (which was closed anyway) but too watch the view from the top of the tumulus on which it is build! Anna told me she'd been there before, and then had the oppurtunity to see the inside of the tumulus as well, where there seem to be some nice neolithic carvings. I do not like so much being inside tumuli, though; more on that later on. Right now I will follow the course of the day, and tell you that from the backside of the tumulus we took the path leading into the forest, to go to the standing stones. The forests around Carnac are gorgeous; near the sea mostly pine, but we also found a very nice pitch which was grewn by birches only! A very pretty sight, with the sun beaming through the white branches...On the road we found yet another sacred well, this one dedicated to st. Michel, like the tumulus. When something really ancient is dedicated to st. Michel, you may be quite sure that it was dedicated to a pagan deity before, or has been a pagan holy place. This explains why there is a holy 'mont st. Michel' on the edge of Brittany in Normandy, and a 'st. Michael's mount' in Cornwall as well. No pun intended. This well was also covered by some ancient stone building, and the water streamed from it with a considerable force! In the stone platform before the well had a way been carved for the water to stream to the river, with in the middle a small bowl carved out, like for the animals to drink. Anna and I have both made photos, and hers are digital, so I hope to be able to show some of them later on!
When we finally arrived at the standing stones it was around lunch time, so we sat ourselves on some 'free menhirs' (those outside the enclosures of the menhir fields) and had a picknick with the crepes I made for that purpose the day before, apples, and water. It was goooood to sit in the sun and eat these delicious thin pancakes with caramel and chestnut cream! After eating, we stayed a bit to relax on the grass, played and sung some music (I had brought my flutes) and felt totally hippy. We left a bit of our food under an ancient pine tree, 'for the korrigans' (breton fairies) as this particular area is also celebrated for its fairy lore. When we returned to the place later on the food had gone, so either the fairies had accepted it, or some local dog had a great meal ;-)
Talking about local dogs...we met one walking between the standing stones. A nice black dog, a 'chasing' type, very enthusiastic and instantly fan of Anna and me! Apparently she was there all alone (although she wore a collar, so she did belong to someone, maybe a farm in the neighbourhood), and she has accompanied us for the rest of the day. It was fun to run with her through the forest, throw a stick for her and, in short, have another walking mate, and an enthusiastic one that was! When Anne or I runned or jumped, she ran or jumped as well, and tried to play with us all the time. The only thing was, she also went to see all other people we met, running around them with a happily moving tail, and those people were not always contend with this... And we explaining every time the dog was not ours, that we just found her in a field and that she had decided to accompany us. Not sure the people believed this, though...At one moment, Anna was going to the toilet, and I was sitting on a low stone wall to wait for her, with the dog sitting before me with here foremost paws on my lap, and me stroking her head. Who would believe the dog was not mine? (Anna made a picture of this btw, you will see it later on. )We called her Brawig, meaning 'pretty one' or 'piece of jewellery' in Breton. At the end of the day it was painfull to say goodbye to her! But I am going too fast, as the day I am telling is not yet over...
In the middle of the menhir fields of Kermaro (which is Breton for 'the village of the dead') we found the 'petite metairie', a small group of houses where people live in the midst of the standing stones. They also sell ice creams and Breton tourist rubbish in the season, but in the winter people just live there. Talking about special places to live....
After the standing stones we visited the tumulus of Kercado (no creepy names here, Cado is the name of a local saint), which is, according to the information given sur place, one of the oldest and best preserved tumuli of Europe. It is a small one, but indeed, everything is there, from the earthen hill to the stone burial chamber within, where some small incisions in the roof may be intepreted as a drawing of a double axe, as I have read. I didn't really see it, to be honest....But I do not like tumuli so much, as they are dark and lugubrous and they give me the feeling I shouldn't be there. Brawig agreed totally with me on this point, as she refused to go inside and stayed out instead, making some very scared noises...I went to join and calm her while Anna watched the double axe inside.
The last thing we saw on this long touristic day was the village of Menec. Anna had worked here as a volunteer some summers ago, restoring the ancient wall along the local menhirs. These walls, she explained to me, are made of the stones found locally, and only stones, so no mortar or anything. A hell of a job, building these walls....In the village of Menec there is a small cromlech, nice to see, and we found even standing stones in the gardens of villagers! In every garden there seemed to be a well, too. Though no sacred ones, I suppose. The village seems to be quite dead, we saw two cars passing by, and an old lady was calling to her cats in the opening of her front door. I saw she had at least four cats, so that makes at least five inhabitants for le Menec! One house was clearly abandoned, and Anna and I considered the possibility of squatting it. Living in this lovely area of forests, wells, tumuli and menhirs wouldn't be bad, would it? It was only the foresight of living in a village with only an old woman, four cats and Brawig as cohabitants that witheld us from it.
After visiting le Menec (and eating a last crepe on a handmade stone wall) we went back to Carnac, to get the latest bus back to Rennes. Both dead tired and very content with our day outside, with red cheeks and, in my case, a slightly burned nose!
score of the day:
* 1 church
* 2 sacred wells
* 2 tumuli
* a dog
* 4 cats
* several hundreds of standing stones.
* 1 cromlech
Not too bad, is it?
Not sure if it is allowed (feel free to close the thread wheb it isn't) but here a quick copy-past from my weblog, about a 'pilgrimage' I made yesterday with a friend, to Carnac...For anyone who might be interested.
W00t, I am Very Happy!
Yesterday I've been to Karnag with Anna, and it was Absolutely Great. We left at the barbarious time of 9.14 PM, with the train to An Alré (Auray for the Gallaoued). And in the bus from Alré to Karnag I was already bouncing and jumping, and so was Anna, because we were just too enthousiastic seeing trees, grass, very little houses, and the sea! For the bus from Alré to Karnag passes An Drinded, or La Trinité sur Mer. It was high water when we passed, and the port was full of pleasure boats gaily shining in the sun. We had a great day of unashamed tourism, and I guess I hadn't seen as many historical monuments in a day sinds I went to Rome with school. So here it goes...
When we arrived in Karnag, we firstly went to see the village church, the church of...saint Korneli, my patron saint! He is also the patron saint of horned cattle (Cornelius in Latin means 'the horned one') and standing stones, and above the mayor entrance of the church there is a statue of saint Korneli with two cows. His legend says that, when he was fleeing for the Roman soldiers pursueing him, he went through the land with a cow on each side of him, and where he went the crops grew at supersonic speed: what was sown one day beared fruit the day after. This way he deceived the Romans: when those asked to some peasant whether he had seen Korneli, the peasant answered 'yes, when I was sowing this field of wheat'. The Romans, seeing a field ready to be harvested, decided to leave Korneli as he was, as he surely had passed more than half a year before! Later they changed mind, though, as another story of the saint tells that, when he was fleeing for the Romans, he finally arrived at the seashore and had no place to go. He then prayed to God, and transformed the Roman soldiers in stones. These stones are still to be seen in Carnac, standing neatly in lines....a local legend has it that once a year, in the longest night, the stones re-transform to soldiers and go bathing in a river nearby. Whoever sees them doing this turns mad, dies, or transforms into a stone himself.
After we had seen the church, we went to search the sacred well. All old churches in that region have a sacred well attached to it, and with the help of a local homeless ('and what are you going to wish at the well?') we found it some two streets further away. It was a nice old well with a little stone building on it, and both Anna and I tossed a coin in it and made a wish. Of course I am not going to tell you what I wished, or the wish will not come true!
From the village church we went to st. Michel's chapel, not to visit the chapel (which was closed anyway) but too watch the view from the top of the tumulus on which it is build! Anna told me she'd been there before, and then had the oppurtunity to see the inside of the tumulus as well, where there seem to be some nice neolithic carvings. I do not like so much being inside tumuli, though; more on that later on. Right now I will follow the course of the day, and tell you that from the backside of the tumulus we took the path leading into the forest, to go to the standing stones. The forests around Carnac are gorgeous; near the sea mostly pine, but we also found a very nice pitch which was grewn by birches only! A very pretty sight, with the sun beaming through the white branches...On the road we found yet another sacred well, this one dedicated to st. Michel, like the tumulus. When something really ancient is dedicated to st. Michel, you may be quite sure that it was dedicated to a pagan deity before, or has been a pagan holy place. This explains why there is a holy 'mont st. Michel' on the edge of Brittany in Normandy, and a 'st. Michael's mount' in Cornwall as well. No pun intended. This well was also covered by some ancient stone building, and the water streamed from it with a considerable force! In the stone platform before the well had a way been carved for the water to stream to the river, with in the middle a small bowl carved out, like for the animals to drink. Anna and I have both made photos, and hers are digital, so I hope to be able to show some of them later on!
When we finally arrived at the standing stones it was around lunch time, so we sat ourselves on some 'free menhirs' (those outside the enclosures of the menhir fields) and had a picknick with the crepes I made for that purpose the day before, apples, and water. It was goooood to sit in the sun and eat these delicious thin pancakes with caramel and chestnut cream! After eating, we stayed a bit to relax on the grass, played and sung some music (I had brought my flutes) and felt totally hippy. We left a bit of our food under an ancient pine tree, 'for the korrigans' (breton fairies) as this particular area is also celebrated for its fairy lore. When we returned to the place later on the food had gone, so either the fairies had accepted it, or some local dog had a great meal ;-)
Talking about local dogs...we met one walking between the standing stones. A nice black dog, a 'chasing' type, very enthusiastic and instantly fan of Anna and me! Apparently she was there all alone (although she wore a collar, so she did belong to someone, maybe a farm in the neighbourhood), and she has accompanied us for the rest of the day. It was fun to run with her through the forest, throw a stick for her and, in short, have another walking mate, and an enthusiastic one that was! When Anne or I runned or jumped, she ran or jumped as well, and tried to play with us all the time. The only thing was, she also went to see all other people we met, running around them with a happily moving tail, and those people were not always contend with this... And we explaining every time the dog was not ours, that we just found her in a field and that she had decided to accompany us. Not sure the people believed this, though...At one moment, Anna was going to the toilet, and I was sitting on a low stone wall to wait for her, with the dog sitting before me with here foremost paws on my lap, and me stroking her head. Who would believe the dog was not mine? (Anna made a picture of this btw, you will see it later on. )We called her Brawig, meaning 'pretty one' or 'piece of jewellery' in Breton. At the end of the day it was painfull to say goodbye to her! But I am going too fast, as the day I am telling is not yet over...
In the middle of the menhir fields of Kermaro (which is Breton for 'the village of the dead') we found the 'petite metairie', a small group of houses where people live in the midst of the standing stones. They also sell ice creams and Breton tourist rubbish in the season, but in the winter people just live there. Talking about special places to live....
After the standing stones we visited the tumulus of Kercado (no creepy names here, Cado is the name of a local saint), which is, according to the information given sur place, one of the oldest and best preserved tumuli of Europe. It is a small one, but indeed, everything is there, from the earthen hill to the stone burial chamber within, where some small incisions in the roof may be intepreted as a drawing of a double axe, as I have read. I didn't really see it, to be honest....But I do not like tumuli so much, as they are dark and lugubrous and they give me the feeling I shouldn't be there. Brawig agreed totally with me on this point, as she refused to go inside and stayed out instead, making some very scared noises...I went to join and calm her while Anna watched the double axe inside.
The last thing we saw on this long touristic day was the village of Menec. Anna had worked here as a volunteer some summers ago, restoring the ancient wall along the local menhirs. These walls, she explained to me, are made of the stones found locally, and only stones, so no mortar or anything. A hell of a job, building these walls....In the village of Menec there is a small cromlech, nice to see, and we found even standing stones in the gardens of villagers! In every garden there seemed to be a well, too. Though no sacred ones, I suppose. The village seems to be quite dead, we saw two cars passing by, and an old lady was calling to her cats in the opening of her front door. I saw she had at least four cats, so that makes at least five inhabitants for le Menec! One house was clearly abandoned, and Anna and I considered the possibility of squatting it. Living in this lovely area of forests, wells, tumuli and menhirs wouldn't be bad, would it? It was only the foresight of living in a village with only an old woman, four cats and Brawig as cohabitants that witheld us from it.
After visiting le Menec (and eating a last crepe on a handmade stone wall) we went back to Carnac, to get the latest bus back to Rennes. Both dead tired and very content with our day outside, with red cheeks and, in my case, a slightly burned nose!
score of the day:
* 1 church
* 2 sacred wells
* 2 tumuli
* a dog
* 4 cats
* several hundreds of standing stones.
* 1 cromlech
Not too bad, is it?