Cairn Gavrinis — Attraction in Vannes

Visiting Cairn de Gavrinis on Île de la Gavrinis and Er Lannic- accessed by a guided tour departing by boat from Larmor-Baden, Morbihan - you can only visit as part of an informative guided tour which is conducted in French, however the guides do give English speakers about a 20 minute summary while the group are going into the Cairn. We used voice translation on Google Translate during the tour - which actually worked pretty well too. The time spent on the islands is an about one and a half hours. Views from the boat and from the island are very pleasant. It is an incredible experience going into the Cairn and seeing the incredible engravings.

The cairn de Gavrinis was erected more than 6000 years ago in the Neolithic period, long before Stonehenge and the pyramids of Egypt. The cairn is a funerary architecture of dry stone, sheltering the burial of a distant ancestor.

The cairn is remarkable for its dimensions: more than 50 m in diameter, 6 m high. It has just a single 2.5 metre-wide burial chamber which lies at its centre. The walls of the chamber are made from around 50 stone slabs - highly decorated with wonderful and intricate engravings representing axes, bows and spirals into the stone and with the huge ceiling slab weighing nearly 17 tonnes.

Ensure you take water, and note there is no seating around the Cairn and a slope up from the...

It's remarkable that you can visit this kind of impressive monuments and I am very grateful to have been able to do so. The only thing that made it a bit disappointing is the tour. We barely speak French and although the guide promised to give us information in English as well, every explanation of approximately 10-15 mins was in French, he was making jokes, asking the group questions and having very good interaction with the French speaking visitors. Then for the group that didn't speak French (approx. 6 people), we got one or two sentences, like a 1 minute explanation. I could tell he was very passionate and very well informed, but we didn't understand anything and only got the bare minimum. I really was disappointed by this, because I would loved to learn more about this beautiful place.

Please consider English tours, or maybe an audio tour so international tourists can learn more about this as well. The visit tot cairn itself is definitely worth 5 stars, the tour for international tourists just 2 or 3...

The cairn itself is impressive and definitely worth seeing, especially the interior, which is beautifully preserved. It was nice to be able to take pictures inside. The short boat ride over was pleasant. My only but major negative: the guided tour is entirely in French and lasts about an hour over the course of the introduction, where we sat in a circle as a group for a good 15 minutes, and the rest of the island. Since the island is small and you’re required to stay with your group until the boat returns, there’s not much else to do while you wait. As a non-French speaker, I found the experience a bit alienating, especially with a young child. Even a simple laminated sheet with an English summary of the guide’s explanation would have made a...