Carnac?

Allow me to clarify my question. In a potential one-week trip to Brittany I'm inclined to include Carnac. As visiting Carnac would require a significant amount of driving, so it would be helpful to know if there are particular reasons why RS (and perhaps others who contribute to the board) do not view it as a top destination on a trip to France. As always, this is about setting expectations. I totally understand that everyone has their own taste and priorities while traveling and I understand that the RS guide is not the definitive arbiter of where Americans should go in France - I'm specifically looking for red flags that might inform me to spend my time elsewhere during a week in Brittany (assuming that a portion of that week is already committed to Dinan, St. Malo, and other sites in the Dinan/St Malo area).

Thanks,

Matt

I visited Carnac when i was in my teens some 15 years ago, so my memory is a little fussy, but i do remember finding it interesting (even considering I was a teenager). I would guess a reason to why it is omitted in the guide book is that it's not that spectacular if you don't know the history, age and significance of the place, it is after all "just" a bunch of stones lined up in rows. What makes the place special is how incredibly old it is and the numbers of stone or menhirs as they are called, though it lacks the mystery and spectacularness of a similar place like Stonehenge.

I expect that a week in Brittany should include Carnac. Rick's book just doesn't set out to provide for travelers spending more than about 2 days in Brittany as part of a wider-ranging trip. With the regional focus of your plan, I would get some more tailored guidebooks, such as the Michelin Green Guides for those areas.

I spent 2 weeks in Normandy and Brittany 3 years ago and I agree to definitely get the Michelin Green Guides for each of them. They are much more comprehensive than RS for sightseeing and better for deciding which places to go, but I didn't use them for accommodations. I actually planned my itinerary for that part of Brittany with Carnac in mind.

If you're at all interested in megalithic sites then definitely go a bit out of your way to visit Carnac. I found it absolutely wonderful. Not as spectacular as Stonehenge but much more intimate. It's more spread out with some parts fenced in with admission charge and required tours but some are still open and accessible (at least they were in 2012) where you can walk among the stones. The great thing is that there are many different things to see - the alignments (rows and rows of stones), burial dolmens, solitary stones (menhirs), and piles of stones (tumuli). It's the largest collection of megalithic sites located in one area in the world.

Bravo to Laura for recommending a better guidebook than RS when it makes sense! I agree that Carnac ought to be included in a trip to Brittany as long as yours, assuming that you're interested in such monuments as I assume you are. I visited there over 50 years ago and the memories are pretty foggy, perhaps because it rained incessantly when I was in Brittany.

Michelin green guides are the absolute best, I think, for the sights themselves, with comprehensive information, maps and floor plans, suggested walks, etc. Not so strong on hotels and restaurants (they go a little high on prices), or the "how tos" of travel. The RS guides are much stronger in those areas, and equally good or better on the sights he chooses (somewhat idiosyncratically at times) to highlight.

Awesome, thanks. This confirms my intuition. While I've got your attention, did any of you drive to the west end if the peninsula and do you have thoughts on that experience?

Thanks a bunch,

Matt

Over the several days I spent in Brittany I drove a good part of the coast. I'm partial to coastal towns, scenery, lighthouses, islands and cliff walks. For the first few days I stayed near Dol de Bretagne, a small town not far from St Malo. I drove all or parts of the coast from St Malo to Brest and down as far as La Rochelle. I did a walk at Cap Frehel (between St Malo and Saint- Brieuc) which was spectacular. I took a ferry from Pointe de L-Arquest to Ile de Brehat and hiked to the lighthouse there, among other things. My next home base was near the village of Plougonven near Morlaix. From there I drove along the coast visiting Pointe Saint-Mathieu which has a ruined Abbey plus a lighthouse (very scenic place), the harbor town of Le Conquet, the artist town of Pont-Aven (well know for when Gauguin lived there), another fantastic walk at windblown Pointe du Raz and then drove down to Carnac. After Carnac I drove further south along the coast to the seaside towns of La Rochelle and Royan and stayed in the small town of La Tremblade on the coast.

I loved all of Brittany and everywhere I went along the coast. Crowds were not overwhelming even though it was mid-July when I was there, except for maybe some of the smaller resort towns along the coast. Most of the other tourists I ran into were either French or Brittish rather than Americans. Brittany is not on a lot of American tourists' radar.

Another vote for the Michelin Green Guide to Brittany. Yes, Carnac should be on your list. I've been out to the Finestere and recommend it. The deeper you go into Brittany, the more you'll appreciate it.

Carnac is fascinating to me -- it's completely different than Stonehenge or the Stenness stones in Orkney -- many of the stones are VERY low to the ground, it's a completely different experience. They have a good visitors' center, I would check there ahead of time to see if/when they schedule English-language tours with a guide.

Thanks a bunch for sharing, this is great info. I'm just in the preliminary planning stage now and this is exactly what I was looking for.

Matt

Another vote to include Carnac. We did a very quick drive through Brittany last year, on our way to meet a NatGeo group at Sarlat. We had visited Mt. St. Michel before, so didn't stop. Did stop at St. Malo, and wish we had spent a night. Then made the very short drive to Dinan and walked RS's recommended city walk there.
It's about two hours from Dinan to Carnac. I had set up (email) a private tour through the visitors' center. The guide was quite good, though the English there is not nearly as fluent as in less remote parts of France. We stayed in a hotel right next to the alignments.
BTW, I think RS probably doesn't include it because it's a detour.
But I want to note that he DOES give good guidance, which we luckily followed, to include a stop at Oradour sur Glane, near Limoges. We were able to do that because, after spending a day in the Loire area, we were driving through Poitiers en route to Sarlat. If it hadn't been for the RS guide, I wouldn't have known about Oradour sur Glane. It is a remarkable town left untouched after the Nazis torched it right after the D-Day invasion; DeGaulle very rightly declared it would be left as a village of martyrs, and it is frozen in time, down to the Singer sewing machines and baby carriages left in place, burned out. The French often visit, but I doubt few tourists get there because Limoges, the nearest town, is not a tourist draw.

I start of by saying that I'm biased because I've lived in Brittany for a year and LOVED it!!

That aside, Brittany should be on any travellers list as it's so very different from the rest of France. Maybe not French enough for RS to give it more than a couple of days in his suggested itineraries. The French were very successful for a number of centuries to kill of the language and culture of the Bretons but there has been quite a revival over the past few decades. And that's certainly worthwhile to explore.

Carnac is a big deal! You have more time in the area than 99% of RS readers so go ahead and see the stones.

Oh, and have you added the "enclos paroissial" (parish closes) to your itinerary? Definitely a highlight in my books!
http://www.france-voyage.com/tourism/parish-closes-345.htm

Like Nancy, I also took my family to stay in just outside of Dol-de-Bretagne. It's the perfect place to head out to Mt St Michel AND to explore the Eastern parts of Brittany. It definitely gives you a sense of the Breton culture without being as touristy as St Malo or Dinan/Dinard (which I also love!).

We stayed here, got a great sense of history and an equally great deal:
http://www.manoirdelagrandemettrie.com

Don't miss Carnac. If you have time, also see the Dol de Bretagne (on the road between Mont St. Michel and St. Malo, as well as see Locmariaquer, which is very near Carnac. Unfortunately, Locmariaquer is mostly re-constructed, and you can find better examples of a passage tomb in Ireland, but as long as you're in the neighborhood, it's worth a stop. There are other ancient sites also nearby but I don't have the website handy describing their location.

If you do decide to stay around Dol de Bretagne, I would second Beatrix's suggestion for Manoir de la Grande Mettrie, that's the same place that I stayed. It's a former farm and manor house parts of which date from the 13th and 16th centuries and I found it a wonderful place to stay. I didn't have any dinners there but I heard they were excellent and the breakfasts were very good. Price couldn't be beat.

I also second her recommendation to see some of the "enclos paroissial", they were fascinating to me. St Thegonnec and Guimiliau were two of them that I was most impressed with. Two other places I visited while staying in that area that I heartily recommend are the towns of Fougeres and Josselin and their respective castles. Both towns had wonderful markets when I visited them but that was only lucky of me to visit on market day.

Thanks a bunch. Sussing out trip details is made efficient on this board thanks to replies like these. You folks are the best!