A megalithic cycling tour of the Loire Valley

Submitted by Andy B on Thursday, 29 October 2015 Page Views: 4012

ResourcesCountry: France

**Le Grand Dolmen de Bagneux** submitted by DrewParsons : Exterior view from which it is possible to guage the immense size of the orthostats and capstones. (Vote or comment on this photo)

We've put together a guide to some of the best (and hugest) dolmens and megalithic sites you can visit in the Loire Valley in France. Click on the various images to visit our pages about each site and also the Loire à Vélo cycle route.

The Loire à Vélo is an 800 kilometre long cycle tourism route, a véloroute like no other in France. It runs from Cuffy (near Nevers) to Saint-Brevin-les-Pins (opposite Saint-Nazaire). You don't have to cycle the whole 800km of course, you can pick and choose any parts that interest you. The route crosses the Centre and Pays de la Loire regions along the banks of France’s longest river, through a valley dotted with countless things to see and do.

In our case we're focussing on megaliths and other ancient sites so we thought we'd put together a guide to some of the most spectacular to be found along the Loire valley. There are literally hundreds but Martyn 'TheCaptain' has given his recommendations for the Angers to Saumer region, as an example of some of the spectacular dolmens you can see on route.

There are other cycling routes in France  - the Loire à Vélo forms the western end of Eurovelo 6, the great trans-European route. Each year, new side routes are added, for example the routes of the Vélocéan network and the Vendée Atlantic coast. There's also a “Châteaux à Vélo” route around Blois, Chambord and “Indre à Vélo”.

For more details of the Loire à Vélo route, with recommendations for bike hire, routes and lots more useful and interactive features, visit www.cycling-loire.com.

You can view a map and table of Martyn's site picks here, and scroll down for the highlights.

Joselière Dolmen (Alt Name: Tombe la Boutinardière)

An unusually square 4 chambered square cairn with double entrances. Chambers with apses similar to single Maltese temples. It consists of a single entrance corridor with four internal chambers opening up on the sides.

Dissignac Tumulus (Alt Name: Bosse de la Prière)

A restored tumulus with two large passage graves inside with the chambers facing southeast. It was fairly substantially rebuilt at some point in the past which doubled the size of the mound and extended the chambers by 4 metres.

Pierre Meslière

Pierre Meslière is a large rocky outcrop high above the north bank of the river Loire, around which evidence of man living here has been found dating back to the paleolithic. To the south of the outcrop, from the neolithic period when the settlement was extended, there was once a line of 48 menhirs running east to west. Today only two remain, the rest having been destroyed for roadbuilding, along with much of the natural rocky outcrop.

La Pierre Levée (Chapelle-Vendômoise)

This is a classic Angevin dolmen made using nice big limestone slabs, and is still almost complete. The main chamber is about 5 metres by 3 metres internal dimensions, and 1.3 metres high. Each side has two supports, and there is one large backstone, and it is topped with two large capstones.

La Madeleine dolmen

What a monster this is, its bigger than my house! It's a fairly simple thing, but the proportions are enormous. The rectangular chamber is 11 metres long, 4.5 metres wide and 3.5 metres high inside, made with massive slabs.

Le Grand Dolmen de Bagneux

This is the largest dolmen in France, and perhaps the world, depending on how you measure things. 17.3m long x 5.4m max wide x 3.1m high. The antechamber adds another 4m to the length. It is covered with four capstones the largest of which is 7.6m long and weighs 86 tons. It is to be found these days in the back garden of a house which used to be a little cafe.

We are very grateful to www.cycling-loire.com for sponsoring this post, and for letting us know about the great cycling holidays to be found along the Loire valley. This is their map of the Loire à Vélo route

Links to our pages for the various départments to find even more ancient sites:
Cher
Loiret
Loir-et-Cher
Indre-et-Loire
Maine-et-Loire
Loire-Atlantique

With many thanks to Martyn (The Captain) for the megalithic recommendations and to Drew Parsons for use of his photos to illustrate this article.

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