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From the summit of l'abbaye du Mont-Saint-Michel to the thousand-year-old stones of Morbihan, prepare for an escapade rich in discovery with these four ideas for visits. Off on the GR® 34!
The abbaye du Mont-Saint-Michel, wonder of wonders
Leave the Emerald Coast for a while and climb up to the abbaye du Mont-Saint-Michel, one of the first sites to be inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List! Do you know its history?
In 708, the Archangel Michael appeared to Bishop Aubert in a dream and asked him to build a sanctuary in his honour on an island called Mont-Tombe. An essential place of pilgrimage in the Christian West from the 11th century onwards, a fortress and then a prison, this monument has an exceptional destiny...
At the summit of Mont-Saint-Michel stands the three-storey Merveille, a group of Gothic buildings erected on the north side of the rock. It is a magnificent testament to the skills of the 13th-century builders.
Enjoy the peace and quiet of the cloister and its garden, open to the sky! The West Terrace offers a unique panoramic view of the Bay of Mont-Saint-Michel, stretching from the Pointe du Grouin in Granville out to the English Channel. Ask about attending the marvellous spectacle of the Great Tides, which only happens a few times a year.
- Open every day
- Full price: €13, free for under-26s
- Length of visit: between 45 minutes and 1h30
- Tip: take advantage of the Revelacio tablets for a visual and audio immersion in the abbey in the Middle Ages and the 19th century!
© Christian Gluckman / Centre des monuments nationaux
In Barnenez, the largest megalithic mausoleum in Europe
In Brittany, the great cairn of Barnenez has overlooked the Bay of Morlaix (north Finistère) for thousands of years ! This extraordinary structure was rediscovered at the last minute in the mid-twentieth century, when a tourist route to the coast was being built.
A cairn is a monument consisting of a dolmen or burial chambers covered with a pile of stones.
Built between 5,000 and 2,000 BC, the great Barnenez cairn is 72 metres long, 6 metres high and 13 to 28 metres wide. This stone mound contains eleven burial chambers carved into the rock.
- Open daily from 1 April to 30 September, closed on Mondays from 1 October to 31 March.
- Full price: €7, free for under-26s
- Length of visit: one hour
Christian Gluckman / Centre des monuments nationaux
The alignements de Carnac in the Gulf of Morbihan
The Gulf of Morbihan - Bay of Quiberon area boasts an unrivalled diversity of megalithic monuments. Continue on and explore two more monuments from the Neolithic , the polished stone age!
Stop off at the alignements de Carnac. With its 3,000 monoliths , spread out in several groups over a length of 4 kilometres, you are looking at the largest megalithic site of its kind in the world!
Let's review the basics: a dolmen is a chamber bounded by horizontal stones, whereas a menhir is a stone standing vertically. The word menhir does not come from Gaulish but from the Breton words men "stone" and hir "long". The word only appeared in the... 19th century!
The Ménec site of the Carnac alignments is without doubt the most impressive of the alignements de Carnac. It features more than 1,000 menhirs lined up in eleven rows over a distance of more than a kilometre. Take a diversion to the Géant du Manio, the highest menhir in the commune of Carnac. It stands 6.50 metres high.
Tip: before wandering around the Alignments, stop off at the Maison des megalithes for an interactive tour of their world.
- The Maison des megalithes is open all year round. The Alignements de Carnac are open for guided tours only from April to September, and for self-guided tours from October to March.
- Price: €13 full price, free for under-7s
- Length of visit: approximately 1 hour
© Philippe Berthé / Centre des monuments nationaux
The Locmariaquer megalith site
As with the alignements de Carnac and the Grand Cairn at Barnenez, the history of the Locmariaquer megalith site dates back to the Neolithic period.
During this period, the way of life changed, with the emergence of agriculture and livestock farming, as well as the construction of villages linked to sedentarisation. The Locmariaquer site provides an insight into three distinct types of megalithic architecture, each with its own specific know-how.
The Great Broken Menhir is the most striking, weighing in at over 300 tonnes! It bears witness to an ancient alignment of stelae that has now disappeared.
The Merchants' Table is an ancient burial site with intriguing engravings that reach right up to the ceiling!
The Er Grah tumulus was built over several centuries. 140 metres long, the burial mound contains funerary objects such as axes and pendants from the Italian Alps and the Iberian Peninsula. Why are they there?
- Open daily from 1 April to 30 SeptemberClosed on Mondays from 1 October to 31 March
- Full price: €7, free for under-26s
- Length of visit: between 30 minutes and 1 hour
4 vents, Centre des monuments nationaux
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