The fields at Carnac look like a parade ground that someone forgot to dismiss. Thousands of standing stones, grey and lichen-streaked, stand in long parallel rows across the heath, running for more than a kilometre in the great alignments at Ménec, Kermario and Kerlescan. They were put up in the Neolithic, several thousand years before the Romans, and nobody knows exactly why. Astronomy, burial and ritual have all been proposed, and a Breton legend offers a quicker answer: Saint Cornély, chased by Roman soldiers, turned them into stone. The wider area of the Morbihan, with its tombs, dolmens and tumuli, has recently been listed by UNESCO.
The sheer scale is what stays with you. Alongside the rows stand huge burial mounds such as the Tumulus Saint-Michel, topped by a small chapel, and dozens of single stones in fields and gardens that locals have lived around for generations. In the high season, access to the main alignments is restricted to guided visits and a fence keeps visitors off the grass, which has suffered from erosion, so expect to look from the path in summer. Out of season the fences open and the stones can be walked among.
The riding is gentle, flat and best taken at a dawdle. Roads thread between pine woods, salt marshes and little harbours, with long views over the Gulf of Morbihan and its islands. In July and August the area is overrun with caravans and cyclists, and the road along the Quiberon peninsula has long queues. Early morning or the shoulder seasons are much better. Auray, on the river of the same name, has over twelve thousand people and is the best place for fuel and a meal. Carnac and Plouharnel have stations too, but they get crowded in summer.
Eat oysters, pancakes with salted butter caramel, and the butter cake called kouign-amann, which locals say can only be made properly in Brittany. A cider from a Breton producer goes well with all of them.
The weather is mild and changeable, and the Atlantic sends in showers at any time. May, June and September give the best balance of light, warmth and quiet.