Touring the north of France

I was excited that our next stop of note was Carnac, famous for its menhirs - or large neolithic standing stones (best known from the excellent comic Asterix and Obelix). With more than 10,000 of these standing stones, many of them are clustered very thickly within fields, making them an awesome sight to see. It was slightly disappointing that unless we paid for a tour, we couldn't actually get close to the stones themselves as the fields were cordoned off  - very different from dad's experiences with these ancient stones, where in his own childhood they were free to run amok and climb the stones at will. 

Josselin was our next stop, somewhere I had been before a few years before. A very pretty medieval village, with a river running past it and a fairy-tale castle, I highly recommend taking a day trip here and relaxing in one of the many restaurants for crepes and cider.

















After this brief foray inland, we followed the coast all the way up through Normandy and Brittany, enjoying the wild beaches and windswept vistas.

This coast is more harsh and rugged, less tame than the rest of France, and there is something very beautiful about it because of this. It reminded me in many ways of the shores of England, and I suppose they aren't seperated by all that much geographically.

















At times the beaches were desolate, at others, horrifically busy (we fled this one rather quickly).

















One of the highlights for me on this trip was our visit to Hardelot where my grandmother and grandfather had once had a house that I had visited on my first visit to France, before they sold it. As such, this seaside town already had fond memories for me, and it was with fond familiarity that I set eyes on that windy beach once more. The water was surprisingly warm, but the wind was such that we did little more than dip our feet in. Children were catching shrimps in rock pools, heedless of the wind, and we stopped to watch them for a bit.
 However hunger drove us on, and we wandered up to the town to try find some nosh. My aunt Caro had recommended us a restaurant for lunch and it was beyond my expectations; I had crevette croquettes and enjoyed them very much, followed by spectacular ice cream which was floating in alcohol. The raspberry sorbet in a bath of Eau de Vie was rather mind blowing, as was the ice cream floating in grand-marnier and brought to us on fire. Yum!