Day #: 29-35
Summary: We are leaning into the freebird route theme on this trip as we are pivoting left and right on our plans on a daily basis. We began this leg slowing down as we explored coastal Brittany including several alignments, including those well-known in Carnac. We were delighted to receive communication from our friends, Fred and Denise, who were in the general vicinity to see if a meet-up would be possible. It wasn’t a hard decision to make to backtrack up north to the Frehel area which we enjoyed exploring in 2025. After meeting up with them, the weather was not cooperating so we postponed our trip to Fort La Latte to the following morning. The rain held off the following morning and all of us agreed we enjoyed this 14th century medieval castle more than we expected. At this point, we planned to explore the Loire Valley but when we checked the weather forecast we learned there was a heat wave arriving which would last 8-10 days. We pivoted yet again. We made a long 10-hour drive south to the Pyrenees Mountains where we are enjoying cooler temperatures at elevation. It is also a holiday weekend so this area is bustling with campervans and lots of younger, active people than we typically see in our camping areas. We selected one of the last partially shaded spots when we arrived yesterday when the Aire was only ½ full, but tonight it is almost completely full. Our refrigerator is still acting crazy but it is still working so we are keeping our fingers crossed that continues as we are still awaiting a response from the manufacturer.
Location(s) Visited: Carmaret-sur-Mer, Carnac, Frehel, Sagre-en-Anjou Bleu, Les Angles France
Overall Impression of Location(s): Carmaret-sur-Mer = 2, Carnac = 3, Frehel = 3, Sagre-en-Anjou Bleu = 3, Les Angles = 3
4 -added to our favorite list and we would return again
3 – a great place to visit
2 – OK for one visit, but we would not return again
1 – we wish we hadn’t wasted our time here
Carmaret-sur-Mer: Leaving Margot, we learned there was a stone alignment called Lagatjar not too far away. These are 84 large megalithic stones arranged in an inverted Pi symbol. There are many theories as to why these stones are placed and arranged here, but nothing is for certain. 
Carmaret-sur-Mer: We were initially wowed by the Lagatjar Alignment, then we went to Carnac where there are literally thousands of stones which stretch on for miles. The Lagatjar stones we could walk up and touch; however, the Carnac stones are fenced off. We both stood in the center of the stone design and just felt an interesting energy we couldn’t explain. 
Carnac – There a 3 large sets of megalithic alignments and 1 petite set spanning several miles. There are over 3000 stones in this area and all seems to be oriented on a specific topographical elevation. The reason these massive rocks of local granite are placed here is unknown (like Stonehenge) but theories indicate possibly an astronomical use. It is the largest collection of stones like this in the world. 
Carnac – Let’s take our Brompton’s to cycle to the 3 different alignments in this area, Tony said, it will be fun. What we got was a bit of Brompton cyclocross due to the muddy forested paths. This was only our 2nd time on the bikes since they were tuned up and probably wasn’t the best idea as these bikes are not really suited for off-roading. 
Carnac – We also biked to the Tumulus de Kercado, a 6500-year-old burial mound with subterranean passages and chamber. Make sure to flip the switch to light the interior so the inside can be explored if you ever visit! 
Carnac – The paths were quite well marked and we rode our bikes to all the Alignment’s, to the Tumulus de Kercado and Tumulus de St-Michel and to the Sainte-Columbian ancient village by the ocean. All in all, it was a lovely day. 
Carnac: Tony is sporting his new dishwashing basket for use at the dishwashing stations many campgrounds have. 
Carnac – We haven’t seen any of the roadside strawberry stands that we have seen in the past so we must eat grocery store strawberries. Even these are 10x better than what we get in the US. 
Frehel – We visited Frehel last year and stayed at the same Aire. We really enjoyed this area and Tony especially likes the cycling. 
Frehel – The beach was just across the street from our Aire and we took a leisurely morning 2.5-mile beach walk which reminded us of our Ireland walks. 
Frehel – Our friends expedition vehicle is on the left and our teeny tiny van is on the right. Fred is a much better driver than we are as we complain about the roads being too small for our campervan. 😂 
Frehel – Fred and Denise were our first passengers in our van when we drove to Fort La Latta. Tony and Denise used the bench seat in the back which had 2 additional seat belts. Tony said overall it was quite comfortable. 
Frehel – Fred, Denise, Tracey and Tony finally meeting on the road just as Fred and Denise prepare to ship their vehicle back to the US. 
Fort La Latta – We arrived a wee bit early so we were able to wander along the GS34 trail for some distance shots. Fred informed us this was the castle used in the 1958 Vikings movie with Kirk Douglas, Tony Curtis, Janet Leigh and Ernest Borgnine. 
Fort La Latta – The castle is also called Chateau de La Roche Goyon. It is now owned by a private owner since 1931. They have greatly restored and modernized the castle before opening it up to the public. 
Fort La Latta – We climbed all the way to the top of the castle for this money shot. Credit: Tony 
Sagre-en-Anjou Bleu – This was a random stop at an Aire based entirely on its location close to our route. We woke up to a beautiful morning and decided to explore on our Brompton’s. We are glad we did as we saw several quintessential small French villages (i.e. no tourists come here per the boulangerie clerk and so she was excited to practice her near perfect English with Tony). We also saw 6000-year-old village walls, blooming roses and poppies everywhere and then we came across this lovely scene that reminded us of Giverny. This stop reminded us that we don’t need a guidebook to find interesting places to visit. 
Toulouse – Fuel is very expensive and we have been trying to shop around a bit more than usual as some prices would be the equivalent of $12/gallon USD. We are glad we have an extended fuel tank in our van which allows us to be more selective in our fill-ups. 
Toulouse – One of the parting gifts from Fred and Denise was this aerosol bottle of Evian water for misting your face. Tracey was so glad to have this during our lunch stop where it was almost 100 degrees in the van. We also were gifted a bunch of food items that they can’t use up or take with them. They are no food waste people like us, so we have been eating our free food for the last few days. Yum and thanks! 
Les Angles – We hiked a 6-mile loop around this lake called Lac Matemale. There were many runners and a few hikers and bikers. 
Les Angles – Tony lost his Whoop (fitness tracker) on a bike ride and when he retraced his ride later it was still laying in the middle of the path. 
Les Angles – Tony is in bike heaven with lots of twisty curvy roads and lots of opportunities for hill climbs. With few cars on the road, he is enjoying this area. One of the Tour de France stages went through this area previously. 
Les Angles – The snow-capped mountains in the distance are the Pyrenees Mountains which are on the France – Spain border. We are currently camped at 5200 feet; however, we met a couple that told us about a free spot in nature about 10 km away which is at 6000 ft so we might try that later in the week. Tracey likes to remind everybody that she walked over these mountains on Day1 of her Camino de Santiago walk in 2012. ☺ 
Les Angles – This is an unusual straight road as most of the roads in this area are anything but straight. The drive up to this area was an hour of almost continuous curves. We are so thankful that we have no concrete plans or reservations and we can just wander. We have been ping-ponging all around this country to this point but enjoying every minute of it.
Distance Driven on Leg (km): 1223
Weather/Temperature (°F): The weather has been all over the place – hot and cold, sunny and rainy and sometimes all within the same day. The storms last 15-20 minutes and pass quickly before the sun is out and shining again, but then an hour later another storm arrive. This makes planning anything outdoors a challenge. Beginning 22MAY2026, there is a heat wave in much of France with anticipated new heat records predicted and temperatures forecasted to be 15-20 degrees higher than average (https://www.severe-weather.eu/global-weather/heat-dome-warm-wave-heatwave-may-summer-2026-forecast-europe-mk/). We don’t stay in Arizona due to the heat so we didn’t want to deal with this in France and it is supposed to last over a week, too. We made the long trip to Southern France and climbed up in elevation in the Pyrenees Mountains where the forecast shows mild 70-degree temperatures during the day and delightful 40’s at night. This should be perfect outdoor exploring weather for us.
Road Conditions: We took lots of tollways on this leg due to the distances we needed to travel. The tollways are lovely, but they are expensive and we paid $75 USD to travel from northern France to southern France. We have encountered more traffic than usual on our long drive, but this is probably holiday traffic. The mountain roads in the Pyrenees are steep and very curvy and we couldn’t drive even close to the speed limit which seemed to irritate some locals who drive more aggressively in this part of the country.
Tofu/Chickpea Mechanical Status: The odometer in Chickpea reads just under 20,000 km. All is well, except the refrigerator. It is holding temperature at maximum fan speed, but just. If any new food is added, it takes almost a full day to recover. The noise annoys Tracey so she sleeps with ear plugs in, but the one benefit of Tony’s hearing loss is he doesn’t hear it at all.
Highlights:
We really enjoyed exploring Carnac on our Brompton bicycles. The bicycle infrastructure in this area is quite varied from awesome dedicated bike lanes to not so great “share the road” signs with bicycles having to share the regular car lane. There is not a ton of traffic in this area and most of the traffic is moving slow so it was an enjoyable experience. We stayed at a full-service campground so we were within walking distance of the Alignments. The campground was fine as the sites themselves were quite spacious, however access to the actual sites was a challenge even for our small campervan. Tracey had great fun watching others try to maneuver their vehicles (some successfully and some not so successfully) into these tight spots.
We had a delightful reunion with our friends, Fred and Denise in Frehel. We initially met when we were both purchasing our Tiger adventure vehicles in 2012. Neither of us still has our Tiger (which we both regret!) but we have remained long-distance friends. They are both a wealth of knowledge about history and France, they both speak multiple languages and we have a common passion for travel which made for a lovely visit.
As soon as we arrived in the Pyrenees Mountains we knew we had made the correct decision to drive 10 hours to get here to escape the heat. Cool, crisp mountain air, huge pine trees, a lake and lots of outdoor activities has us both in our happy place.
Lowlights:
Gas prices have increased significantly since our last visit to Europe in the Fall of 2025 and they are considerably higher than current US fuel prices. We are paying between $9-11/gallon USD for diesel on this trip. We knew this before starting this trip, but it is a bit of a shock to fill up half our fuel tank and it still costs over $100. The only positive is Chickpea gets about 28 mpg which helps a bit.
Our long drive from northern to southern France was through the beginning of the heat wave and it was quite unpleasant. We have a dark gray van and we don’t have A/C in the back, so the temperature builds quickly inside the vehicle even with shades in and fans running. We stopped for lunch in Toulouse where the outside temperature was 90 degrees, but inside the van it was a miserable 98 degrees.
Up Next: We plan to wander around the Pyrenees Mountains for the foreseeable future until the heat wave ends. We aren’t sad about this at all as it is quite beautiful here, we are mountain town type of people and Tony has already found a few epic road bike routes.
Allez on y va!
Discover more from The Tofu & Chickpea Scramble
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
We were glad to see the pictures of you guys and the Cooks. We had hoped to hook up with them this trip but it was not meant to be. If you are looking for cheap fuel and since you are in the neighborhood, Andorra is famous for its cheap fuel though I don’t know if that exists these days.
Thx! Andorra 🇦🇩 is on your Pyrenees stop list. We hope to arrive with an empty tank and leave with a full. Seriously, I just don’t usually do the conversion and live in willful ignorance. Hope you enjoyed your hotel in Germany.
Some quick research indicates Andorra is selling diesel for Euro 1.34/L!