Brittany is the land of legends. In fact Brittany has more legends per head of the population than any other region of France. This is probably the fault of the Cornish Bretons, who settled there in vast numbers in the fifth century, bringing with them some clotted cream, some pasties, an impenetrable language and a line in very tall tales. By the time they arrived, the clotted cream and pasties had gone off so they threw them overboard. The language however survives in trips-off-the-tongue place names like Le Relecq-Kerhoun, and you can't drive more than a few kilometres without running into a Tall Tale.
Carnac is a notorious Tall Tale blackspot. There are more than 3,000 neolithic standing stones in and around the village. No-one knows who put them there, or why. Here are some suggestions:
#1 They are pagan soldiers who were turned to stone by Pope Cornelius because they were chasing him. (That was when Popes WERE Popes.)
#2 They are Roman soldiers who were turned to stone by Merlin because they were chasing him. (Merlinists point out that the stones must have been Romans because they are standing in straight lines.)
#3 The druids held raves there.
#4 They are an accurate map of the Andromeda Nebula, and may have been put there by aliens as a sort of driving-school test-course.
#5 They point to the sunset at solstices and were put there to attract New Age hippies.
#6 They're a neolithic earthquake-early-warning-system, because the stones resting on the top of the dolmens (stone tables) would wobble with seismic activity.
La Résidence - THE French Property People
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