Sea salt and Carnac

a small part of the La Baule beachfront, with the tide out

The resort town of La Baule was established in 1879 with the coming of the railroad and the stabilizing of the sand dunes by planting hundreds of trees.  The town boasts 12 k of sandy beaches which are lined with hotels, condos, apartments, and an occasional original house.  Behind the strip lies the commercial district and lovely tree-lined residential areas.  The tide was out as we rode the seafront, leaving many marina boats high and dry. 

We rode to the end of the peninsula and the town of Le Croisac and then through the salt mashes of Guerande which apparently produces the finest sea salt in France.  The whole elaborate process of hand producing this salt was a surprise to us.  (for a personal view of this, check out:  http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2006/09/fleur-de-sel-de-1/ ).  We stopped with the tour buses at the busy museum/store but decided there was no room on the bike for a bag of the salt.

salt mashes of Guerande

 

Next stop was lunch, unfortunately post-2PM and therefore whatever we could find which was a fancy hamburger topped with egg and fries and salad--rather tasty actually.  On to Carnac and the fabulous megalithic stones (3300 BC) forming "alignments"--long rows in sections along a 2-3 kilometer road.  Some are truly huge and one cannot imagine how they were transported here. 

Late afternoon and time to join the light traffic on the motorway to another walled city--Concarneau.  We located a Brit Hotel (a chain we have not tried before) just two blocks from the walls and took an evening walk along the ramparts and through the surprisingly quiet town. The action is all outside the walls.