Leaving the Presqu'ile!

Well, I'm not going to lie, after the incident with the neighbor's gate, I have been very hesitant with driving.  But with Erin itching to do some sight seeing and shopping, I knew it was only a matter of time before we'd have to make a long drive.  Each Thursday I've been playing badminton which makes me drive and so I finally gave in and we made plans to go to Carnac to do some sight seeing.

Carnac is a cute small town not too far away but Erin wasn't allowed to talk except if I asked her something (I couldn't be distracted!).  We stopped for gas on the way and then once we made it to the village, panic set in.  Driving is no problem, the problem is parking.  Who knows where I'm allowed to park, if we have to pay, how long we can stay, etc. etc.!  In some parking areas you have to use a magic disc to show what time you arrived.  It's all so simple....if you grew up here! :)  But luckily there was a large lot right on the edge of town, so we parked there.  Phew!  The hard part was over!

After we toured the cute town we visited the tourism office.  We went to a prehistoric museum.  Then it started to rain and we almost went home, but at the last second we decided to go see one of the largest groupings of the megaliths.  For kilometers (whatever they are!) these standing stones are lined up.  Its really quite a sight.  I've heard it been called the stonehedge of France (which makes sense since this area has celtic roots).



Having successfully gotten us to Carnac and back, I figured Erin would be happy not leaving the presqu'ile for at least another 3 months - I was wrong!  She is not embracing the quiberonnais lifestyle of staying on the presqu'ile!  Therefore, a few days later we met some new friends, Kim and Jorn, and Kim made the mistake of telling Erin about H&M and Zara in Lorient (which is about an hour away).  So after Erin begging to go and me spending an hour on google maps, we go.



Lorient was completely destroyed during the wall and it was rebuilt quickly, because....well this large city had thousands of people who wanted to have a place to live.  But if you ask a Frenchman about Lorient, it's an ugly city.  If you ask us, it's nice!  It has large roads (a plus in my book!) lined with trees and at least one nice large park.  So after a little panic with the parking (I'm beginning just to accept that parking will always mean stress) we walked to H&M and Zara.  We did some shopping and Erin came home with about 4 new tops and I came home with my first european pants (meaning they are tight!) and also a scarf.  I figured when in France...(I haven't worn the scarf yet, baby steps!)



No one we told about Lorient was very impressed; they all said how ugly the city was.  But now we might go and visit one of Sophie's friends in Vannes which isn't as far and is also not ugly and has more shops.  I'm even talking about driving to the Loire valley to see some chateaux....but we'll see how long of a drive that is first!