Category: Brittany

The Gravinis Tumulus and the Holly King and the Oak King

Posted C. LaVielle4 CommentsPosted in Brittany, Wheel of the Year

The tiny island of Gavrinis guards the turbulent entrance to Brittany’s Gulf of Morbihan. To get there, we took a beautiful 10 minute boat ride from the tiny village of Lamor-Baden.   Perched on the island’s highest point is a spectacular tumulus. Actually it’s a tumulus covering a cairn, covering a dolmen.* And it’s old. Built in 3500 BCE during the Neolithic Era, it is older than the Great Pyramid of Giza and even a few centuries older than Newgrange, its more famous Irish cousin. And it’s really big. At 100 meters in diameter, it’s bigger than Newgrange. And the 46 foot long passageway leading to the central chamber is made up of huge stones carved in fantastic patterns that seem to shimmer and pulse. Several sources state flatly that they are some of the most magnificent art humanity has produced, a masterpiece of universal art. And it’s prominently placed. When it was built, sea level was much lower and it was part of the… Read More »

The Secrets of the Carnac Alignments Revealed! (Actually, Just One of Them)

Posted C. LaVielle11 CommentsPosted in Brittany

I have been to Stonehenge twice and was in awe of the engineering ability and sheer effort it took to build it, but the whole thing felt somber and empty, like there was nothing there for the living, and possibly never had been. Stonehenge’s neighbor, Avebury, is a totally different story. The stones there feel good and the energy is celebratory and joyous. You could tell by the way they were laid out that they were avenues and enclosures for community festivals. The archeology also supports this. So how, I had always wondered, would the standing stones of Brittany feel? They are much older, some dating back to 4500BCE—Stonehenge and Avebury date back to about 2500BCE (first stones erected) and 2600BCE respectively. So when my husband and I and Jim and Yvonne, our traveling buddies, decided we wanted to go to Paris, Craig and I put in a request to spend a week in Brittany. Jim and Yvonne were an easy sell after they’d seen… Read More »