In the News
Since our visit in 2016, this ancient site with stones dating back 7000 years or more has had 39 destroyed to make way for a DIY hardware store chain. The 39 stones in Carnac were around 0.6m to 1.2m in height and were close to highly protected pre-historic tourist attractions where similar menhirs exist. Menhirs are tall upright stones erected in Western Europe during pre-historic times. I found this news quite unbelievable; surely there isn’t a lack of land in the area available for development instead of partially destroying a heritage site.
Our visit was between housesits in Northern France and an area that is so undervalued as a destination in it’s own right.
Life at No. 22 
Quite unbelievable that could happen, Suzanne! Though I believe there’s a plan to put a bypass in at Stonehenge which will likely disturb these ancient monuments. Crazy, isn’t it? Love your postcard!
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Thanks very much, Jo. I read about it first online via a NZ news source, so off I went to investigate and unfortunately they were correct.
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😗🩵
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The proposal is for a tunnel, which won’t disturb the stones, but may some of the nearby burrows. If you’ve ever had to drive past there during the summer you’d be wanting them to build a tunnel!
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That’s not what the news report was saying from various resources. Perhaps another worksite you’re referring to.
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My comment was to Jo re: Stonehenge. I haven’t read anything about the French site.
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Apologies, Jude, a very warm night, and a lack of sleep had me reaching for my phone😊
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No worries Suzanne 🤗
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I visited Carnac around 12 years ago. It was a lovely and interesting place to see.
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We really enjoyed the Brittany region, so completely different to the more popular areas of France. Actually, we loved the areas that weren’t usually visited by tourists. One great thing about housesitting is the opportunity to do that.
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You should visit my part of France then if you haven’t it is very rural with few tourists. It is in the south of France called the Gers county.
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We were very close. One day we may be able to return. Rural villages and towns were lovely. We did a 3 month housesit in a very small village and we managed to survive with very little French 🙂
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Brittany is lovely, especially the coastline. We’ve not been to Carnac yet but I’m surprised they allowed some of the stones to be moved.
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We also loved the coastline, reasonably unspoilt by developers.
Here’s a link about it https://twitter.com/archaeologyEAA/status/1667081134994337794?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1667081134994337794%7Ctwgr%5E4bf19e7acf66fcb3da63c26c6db23a72b27c74f8%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fworld%2Feurope%2F300903745%2Fancient-stones-thought-to-be-7000-years-old-removed-to-build-a-hardware-store-in-france
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I find it hard to understand why ancient standing stones were destroyed to build a DIY store. It’s terrible, almost criminal.
Great postcard btw 😄
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Thanks very much 🙂 I have posted a link regarding the removal of the stones. We were told once that if an article is not repeated throughout various news sources it’s not true. Well, this has been printed in online newspapers here in NZ to quite a few in Europe. Yes, I agree it is almost criminal.
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The above is my comment, Suzanne. I don’t know why anonymous comes up on some of my replies on various blogs…so annoying!
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Yes, I’m not sure why that occurs, Cathy. Thanks for letting me know it was you.
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That’s outrageous! We visited Carnac even longer ago – c1982.
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It is outrageous and I’m sure there was more land around there that was vacant. I was still dreaming of travelling further than Australia in 1982.
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You know, I was looking at your picture of the stones and thought, “That looks like the perfect place for a DIY store.” Great minds, I guess…
(Yes, I’m kidding.)
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Haha, there is always one joker in the pack.
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A very sad situation to allow such destruction. Well, I’m sure what’s left is still spectacular!
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The puzzle is no longer complete, though perhaps it wasn’t in the first place? Just a weird situation which caught my attention.
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I wonder if people will be visiting the DIY store in 7000 years time.
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Interesting concept, Malc though I’m guessing DIY won’t be an issue.
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A DIY store?? Seriously? I despair
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Incroyable
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I can’t believe they would destroy part of this site to build something as non-essential as a DIY store! Surely there was somewhere else they could have put it?!
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The news came out last June, and I was very surprised. Developers most probably didn’t want to pay more for the land than they had to. A wild guess.
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That’s so strange, to destroy something like that to build a hardware store?
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Very strange, Martha. Easier to convince a local authority to sell land than a local individual?
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It might be… that’s just sad, though.
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Agreed it is.
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