Port du Crouesty & Le Petit Mont

When we left le Mont-Saint-Michel, we headed to Port du Crouesty in southern Brittany and our two night stay at Miramar La Cigale. This was our least favorite hotel and portion of the trip. The hotel looks like a cruise ship, and is even surrounded by water. We did have a lovely balcony but overall, this hotel was the least impressive of the different places that we stayed. Lee and I did a lot of walking in Port du Crouesty, which is home to the second largest marina in France, housing more than 2,000 boats, as well as a lovely beach front. We also had a guided tour of the nature preserve, which included a visit to Le Petit Mont, a burial site more than 6,000 years old that was also used by Julius Caesar in 56 AD, as well as by the Germans during WWII. In 1943, the Germans built a bunker into the cairn, which became part of the "Atlantic Wall", a 2,000 miles stretch of extensive system of fortifications that ran from Scandinavia and along the north west coast of continental Europe. While construction of the German bunker destroyed two older chambers of Le Petit Mont, it ended up facilitating the excavation of the earlier passage and its chamber.

The marina. I've never seen so many boats - and in addition to the more than 2,000 boats in the water, you could see several others in dry land storage.

La Miramar Cigale

Chapel Notre-Dame-de-Croisty is located at the entrance to the marina and overlooks the sea. This chapel has a deep connection to local folklore and the sea. It is dedicated to Saint Gildas and the protection of sailors; legend holds that the saint's body was discovered in a boat on this shore in 565 AD. Early versions of this chapel were built too close to the water and crumbled into the sea. The present day chapel was built in 1826.

Le Petit Mont is considered one of the most significant chambered toms in Brittany. Artifacts recovered during excavations demonstrate that this site was also used during the Bronze Age and the Gallo-Ronan period.