This is REIL fun

Thursday, January 22, 2026

Getting Closer!

We're in an SQ in Paris (quite lovely I might add). Only 6 more sleeps until we're back in our own beds in our new home.

Rennes, part two

Since we were leaving so early the next day (and because we were worn out), we stayed local on our last day.

I LOVE all the flowers over so many of the shop doors! I think every shop should be so welcoming!

Is there any place more surreal? It's hard to put one's finger on exactly what, but everything from the surrounding grasslands and the tidal plain, to the sharp rise of the hill called by the sheer walls at the city's base, the village and finally the abbey itself with its majestic spire. It all feels like it's pulled from faërie into our world.

Yes, I was quite taken by it.

While Mont St. Michel is technically in Normandy, and thus outside our self-defined 'tour of Brittany', it was ceded by the Franks to the Bretons in the Treaty of Compiègne in 867. It remained part of Brittany for sixty-six years before William Longswords of Normandy took control of the region. So I figure it counts! (More seriously, there's no way I'm going to be staying an hour and not go).

The story of the Archangel Michael pressing a hole in St. Aubert's skull because he didn't listen to the first two requests to build an oratory on the hill is classic. After that, he listened. The oratory was started soon after in 708 AD. While there were previous sacred sites present on the mount before, that's when it became known as Mont St. Michel. Later (1,001 years ago) the Benedictines would establish the abbey, which was built in phases. When it was started, in was built in the Romanesque style, but later portions are in Gothic style - clearly visible in the main chapel where half was destroyed during the Hundred Years War, so if you look east it's Romanesque, but west it's Gothic.

And like Dinan, the Mount is also portrayed on the Bayeux Tapestry. In return for the Abbey's support for his Conquest, William granted it lands in England, including an island off of Cornwall where a sister priory was created, St Michael's Mount of Penzance (now on my list of places to visit.)

Menhirs of Monteneuf

I love medieval history. But I'm also fascinated by the deep history of prehistoric times, especially the Neolithic period.

So when I saw that there was a site not far from Rennes, I knew I had to go. And even though our feet were getting sore, and we were hot and thirsty, and we didn't get home until almost 11pm, my clan were good soldiers and indulged me.

We first stopped at the Tomb of Merlin - because come on... Merlin! The site was nothing grand, but there's also a fountain of youth! It led me down the rabbit hole of the close connection of Arthurian legend and Brittany.

The menhirs of Monteneuf, on the other hand, were breathtaking. Dating back to 4500 BC, they were already 1,100 years old when Stonehenge was started. There's something profoundly awe-inspiring to me, as one of the signs put it, seeing something that stretches back 240 generations. But then, as my wife put it, I'm a bit of a pagan...

(Post written by Leonard)