France
I didn't have so much trouble getting up this morning, and after my morning trip to the boulangerie we spent ages waiting for George to warm up in the sun. We were still a bit chilly by 11am, so Claire went for a run and I did a kettlebell workout with Chris Bear, who almost got trapped under his kettlebell at one point. Good job I was keeping an eye on him. Claire joined me for the last bit, then we had lunch and finally set out to the beach.
We were feeling a bit guilty that Chris hadn't seen any of the standing stones yesterday (he stayed in the van as I was worried about rucksack space). So we set off to try and find a solitary dolmen marked on the map a couple of miles along the coast. We were studying the map and obviously looking like lost tourists when an elderly French couple approached us and asked us what were were looking for. At least, I think that's what they asked us. We showed them the dolmen on the map, and they pointed into the woods, scoffed and shook their heads before coming out with a torrent of French, which we think meant "you can't get to it". A further torrent of French followed, along with a lot of pointing at different things on our map. Claire said "oui" several times and then came out with "d'accord" which is something French people say a lot during conversations. We think it means OK. However, it was obvious to me, and I think to the French couple, that neither of us had a clue what they were taking about. We eventually managed to get away.
I don't like to be told that something is there but you can't get to it, so once they were out of sight, I spotted a very faint possible path through the woods and darted off down it. Claire followed, probably rolling her eyes at my choice of route and chance of success. After about 5 minutes of fighting our way through a forest of gorse bushes (most unpleasant when wearing shorts and T shirts), we emerged on the top of a hill to find the elusive dolmen! There were no obvious paths to it from any direction, and so we were the only ones there. It's no wonder we struggled to find any yesterday if they're all so well hidden.
We spent a while there taking photos, getting on top of the stones and under the stones and making sure Chris had a good look to make up for yesterday. We spotted some marks on the top which according to yesterday's museum are where cavemen used to sharpen their axe heads.
We fought our way back through the gorse and the woods (don't worry, Chris remained safely inside my rucksack throughout the gorse battle) and headed for the beach. The tide had come in quite a lot whilst we'd been in the woods and we decided it was the perfect time to use the secret path to the little island in the bay. The island is one of those islands that are only islands at high tide, but what makes it unusual is that there is a natural raised sand causeway which at certain points during the tide is only a few inches below water.
We walked across as the tide was just closing it off from the beach, had a quick look round the island (nothing there really except a sunburnt man and a dog playing in the sea). By the time we came back the sea had just covered the secret path so to people on the beach it would have looked like we were walking on water. The sand of the secret path was bubbling like a jacuzzi, and we assumed there were some sea creatures underneath, possibly what people were collecting in buckets earlier in the week. Despite digging down with our hands we couldn't find what they were though.
When we reached the beach we sat in the sun for a while reading and watching the tide come the rest of the way in. We eventually headed back to George at about 6pm when we started getting chilly. We were sad to leave the beach, as it may be the last time we get our feet wet in the sea until next summer. It also signifies that we're nearly at the end of our holiday, as tomorrow we are starting our journey north towards Calais. We plan to stop for our last night in France a few hours up the coast at a town called Honfleur which has been recommended by two people in the week before our trip for being generally nice and having nice restaurants and being on the way back to Calais.
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