One of the things I love about Brittany is how quickly the landscape changes. Follow the coast for a while and it can look completely different again.
We started our day at Ploumanac’h, on the Pink Granite Coast, where enormous pink rocks are scattered along the shoreline. Some are rounded and smooth, others seem to balance impossibly on top of each other. Between them stands the Mean Ruz lighthouse, overlooking the sea.
Not far away, we found a very different kind of stone: the Menhir de Saint-Uzec. The seven-metre-high standing stone dates back to the Neolithic period, but was later Christianised with a cross and religious carvings.
The journey into Brittany’s distant past continued at the Cairn de Barnenez. Built almost 6,000 years ago, this enormous stone burial monument contains eleven passage tombs. Walking alongside it gives you a remarkable sense of just how old it is.
We ended the day much further inland, at the small Chapelle Saint-Michel in the Monts d’Arrée. Gone were the pink granite rocks and sheltered bays. Here, the landscape was wide, open and almost empty.
Sea, granite, prehistoric stones and windswept hills. All in one day, and all Brittany.