I went swimming with a friend today, and on the way to the beach we diverted so I could show him the dolmen and covered ally that I explored last weekend.
He was impressed.
And then we drove to Tourony to swim as the tide was reaching its maximum.
I was curious to know if with a slightly lower high tide the currents halfway to the château would be as strong as they were last Sunday. We swam out. I suggested going to the two buoys just past the little cove formed by the rocks, but he didn't think he was a strong enough swimmer, so I swam a little further alone and then, as the current began to pull at me, decided, nope, it's not worth the risk, and I turned round too.
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Back on the beach I started chatting to a French guy. Had I been swimming? he wanted to know, and did I know that there are strong currents in the middle of the channel that can drag a person away? Yes, I told him, I disovered them last weekend, but I've swum to the castle several times and only once was it a struggle to get through the channel. It depends on the sea, he told me, which made perfect sense because the sea has definite moods: some days calm and smooth like a purring pussy, some days lively and scratchy like a kitten, some days rising and falling like a sleeping tiger and last Sunday it was like a leopard trying to drag its prey away.
Today it was well behaved, but I think I need to work on my upper body strength before I try to tackle the swim to the château again.
After our swim we took a walk at l'Île Renote.
I'd read that there's a dolmen somewhere and seen it on Google maps, but I'd never managed to find it, Until today.
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The dolmen is situated in the garden of a private house, but there's a little track from the main path that leasds to it so we assumed the public have the right to visit it, and anyway the (very large) house was shuttered and obviously closed for the winter - I'll refrain from posting my views on extravagant second homes - so we didn't feel guilty about venturing into the garden to expolore the dolmen.
Here's the details translated from the French Wikipedia page:
The dolmen is characterized by its funnel shape: it is a «V» burial, although it is often wrongly described as a covered alley. The dolmen measures 12.75 m in length with a width between 1 m on the west side and 2.25 m on the east side. The north side consists of a natural rock of 7 m in length extended by four orthostates whose length varies between 0.50 m and 1.25 m. The south side is delimited by seven orthostates inclined towards the interior of the chamber whose length varies between 1 m and 2,25 m. A slab almost perpendicular to the axis of the monument at its east end may constitute the bedt2.
The assembly is covered with a cover table 2.65 m long by 2.40 m wide and 0.35 m thick. A second table, broken into two parts, lies inside the chamber (the largest piece measures 1.60 m by 1.35 m and 0.45 m thick)2.
The remains of a peristallithic enclosure are visible around the dolmen protruding from the ground on the north and south sides. All slabs are made of Ploumana'h2 granite.
The building was reportedly excavated in ancient times, but in the early 20th century, “a polished stone axe, two flint tips and fragments of white coral” 3 were discovered.
( https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolmen_de_l%27%C3%8Ele_Renote)
