Part 1 is here.

… British parents seemed to be controlled by their children – you can see even quite small kids sizing up their parents and thinking “if I do this they’ll really lose it”, whereas the French adults seem in control.

6. Staying in a mobile home on a camping site isn’t at all bad. For one person lots of space, a fridge and basic cooking facilities for leisurely breakfasts, and this is a lovely spot – Camping de l’Ocean. I’ve got a “sea view” – well a glimpse of the bay between two houses provided no car is going along the road at the time, the shade a giant old fir tree that scents the air with resin, lots of birds (finches, sparrows, swallows, and some doves that appear to be under the misapprehension that this is spring), a chorus of crickets from the neighbouring field – not bad for a week for 250 euros. (Although sadly now the euro is so strong France isn’t nearly as cheap overall as it used to be.)

7. The sea temperature at this time of year is quite pleasant – cool but not bracing, at least unless you let your feet trail dow a meter or so. After that, it is cold!

* Why are there so many menhirs (standing stones)? Well no one really knows, but it seems to me that when you look at a map the primary formation – the alignments du Menec, Kermario and Kerlescan (avenues of standing stones up to 10 wide) – they clearly form a “wall”, at least a psychological wall, across the peninsula. If you wanted to say to the Mesolithic hunter-gatherers, who you’d pushed out as you started clearing the forests for agriculture “This is our bit”, then this was a pretty good way to do it.

1. Brittany does mist. Brittany does mist really, really well.

You’ve been in bright sunshine, then suddenly you notice the tendrills creeping over the hill, through the menhirs (Neolithic standing stones) and then you are enveloped. Kind of fun and mysterious, unless you are miles from town, exploring said menhirs, with the “aid” of the rather inaccurate tourist office map. Still, it was interesting trip home, past the amazing tumulus St Michael, which really is pyramid-like in its sheer bulk. Neolithic of course, but subsequently usurped by the Caholic church with a chapel on the top.

2. As that suggests, Britanny, or at least this area of it, around Carnac (pronounced as the Egyptian temple centre) has an astonishing concentration of massive Neolithic stone monuments. They’re casualy scattered over the landscape, as informally as trees. There’s one by the camp site entrance, and look,a dolmen by the carpark.*

3 Traditionally Britanny galettes (pancakes) are made from buckwheat flour (ble noir). Yippee Since I’m trying to eat gluten (though not being very good this week – who can resist nice crusty bread with their oysters?), when I realised this (frok reading a useful ‘recipe’ postcard) I could stop turning my back on all those tempting creperies – at least the more traditional ones. And buckwheat pancakes, as I already knew, are delicious.

4. Breton cider – which can be very nice indeed, is traditionally drunk from a cup, not a glass.- a very bulbous, broad cup. not sure why, but perhaps a function of the traditional poverty of the area, since glasses were probably expensive.

5. There are far too many Britons in Brittany. Yes I said Britons, not Bretagnes. I gather it is because of easy ferry crossings, but there seem to be a lot of the yell-louder-and-the-waitress-will understand-English school here, being very obnoxious and doing things like demanding spag bol for dinner. In France! And the British children seem far less controlled than the French. I don’t know why …

To be continued. I’ve written the second half, but PDA web browser and WordPress are not good friends….