Megerie Menhir

Trip No.203  Entry No.297  Date Added: 26th Apr 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Loire-Atlantique)
Visited: Yes on 8th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 3

Log Text: This is a nearly 3 metres tall menhir, signposted down a little track at the hamlet of La Mégerie, in a field full of cows. It makes a strange hollow sound when I tapped it, perhaps its cracking apart, or perhaps its magic !

Le Riverais 1

Trip No.203  Entry No.296  Date Added: 26th Apr 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Loire-Atlantique)
Visited: Yes on 8th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 2 Access 4

Log Text: Just beside the road in the hamlet of Riverais, to the west of St-Père-en-Retz, can be found this menhir beside a farmyard entrance. Its about 2.5 metres tall, but looks like the top has been broken off.

Chevanou Menhir

Trip No.203  Entry No.295  Date Added: 26th Apr 2020
Site Type: Standing Stones Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Loire-Atlantique)
Visited: Yes on 8th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: Still further north up the D.5 road from Chauvé, is he Chevanou menhir, right by the roadside. This one is quite famous for its bottle shape, but this is only apparent in one view, from edge on. The stone is over 4 metres high and 3 metres wide, and from this view it is more sharks fin shaped than bottle shaped in profile. Just beside it is another large stone. A fallen menhir companion maybe ? Its hard to say for sure.

Platennes Menhirs

Trip No.203  Entry No.294  Date Added: 26th Apr 2020
Site Type: Stone Row / Alignment Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Loire-Atlantique)
Visited: Yes on 8th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: A bit further on past the Pierre Le Matz up the D.5 road north of Chauvé, these menhirs are signposted on the right. It is hard to tell exactly what was once here, but it was probably pretty impressive. The first thing you see is a lot oof broken stones, which was once a menhir which has been toppled and broken into many pieces. Then just the other side of the lane are seen three more menhirs in a row, now all fallen, and facing towards the broken one. All would have been 4 metres high or thereabouts, and it is possible that there was once several more here.

La Pierre Le Matz

Trip No.203  Entry No.293  Date Added: 26th Apr 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Loire-Atlantique)
Visited: Yes on 8th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: This is a nice shaped menhir, about 4 metres tall. It is signposted up the D.5 road north of Chauvé, and in a little fenced off area.

Pierre Levée de Soullans

Trip No.203  Entry No.290  Date Added: 24th Apr 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Vendée (85))
Visited: Yes on 7th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: In a little forest clearing beside the busy D. 69 road to the south of Challons, I found this stone because of the restaurante of the same name. It is a big stone, 4 metres high, more than 3 metres wide and 1 metre thick. It suffers badly from vandalism and graffitti, including lots of hippy crap in English. Nearby is a Rue de Pierre Levée, and a sign to menhir which I followed thinking that there might be another. I couldnt find anything, and so asked a chap out in his garden. It basically takes you round a back way through the woods to the same stone I had just visited, rather than getting to it by walking along and crossing the busy main road.

La Palissonnière

Trip No.203  Entry No.289  Date Added: 24th Apr 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Vendée (85))
Visited: Yes on 7th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: In a field of barley, just to the south of the D.82 road to the northwest of Commequiers village, can be found this menhir. However, as is often the case, there is a way through to it by following through some tracks made by the tractor wheels. It is about 2.5 metres high, 2 metres wide and has one or two strange shapes in the grey stone.

La Pierre Folle (Commequiers)

Trip No.203  Entry No.288  Date Added: 24th Apr 2020
Site Type: Passage Grave Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Vendée (85))
Visited: Yes on 7th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Once a very nice example of an Angevin type dolmen, this has now mostly collapsed. Only three support stones are left standing, with a part of the capstone on top of them. The chamber would have been rectangular, 5 metres by 3 metres, and over 2 metres in height. The entrance is as usual to the east, and only the eastern part of the dolmen is still standing, with the rest of the stones being a bit of a jumble, although the basics can still be made out. One of the fallen sidestones has been recently broken.

This poor place suffers badly from vandals and idiots. Apart from graffitti, it looks like somebody set about it with a grindstone, amd its noticeboard has some poor disillusioned souls rantings all over it.

Pierre Levée de Soubise

Trip No.203  Entry No.287  Date Added: 24th Apr 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Vendée (85))
Visited: Yes on 7th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 2 Access 4

Log Text: I cant see much of a future for this poor little dolmen, which is currently pleasantly situated on a little mound on some sandy heathland. Marker tape and trenches are set out around it, with diggers and other heavy plant, and I would think that before too long this whole area will be a building site for yet more holiday homes in this very popular beach and holiday area.

The dolmen is a simple thing, with its 2.5 by 2 metre capstone sat at a jaunty angle on top of three support stones. A few other stones lay scattered around on the remains of its tumulus. A sarcophagus and three bodies were found here in 1901. According to legend, the table spins at the sound of the bells of the nearby St Nicholas-de-Brem church.

Menhir de la Crulière

Trip No.203  Entry No.285  Date Added: 24th Apr 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Vendée (85))
Visited: Yes on 7th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 2 Access 4

Log Text: Signposted from the road, 0.5 kilometres walk, and having a little white signpost at the field entrance, I somehow walked right past, and took ages before I turned round and came back. How on earth did I miss it ? I probably wasted almost an hour here ! The menhir, 2.4 metres tall, and a triangular block of white granite, is in a field which is well fenced. The sign tells me that it is the last of four megaliths which existed in the commune of Brem-sur-Mer only a hundred years ago. There is a legend that a fifteen year old boy and his cow were crushed beneath the stone, which was thrown by the devil.

Menhir dit la Conche-Verte

Trip No.203  Entry No.284  Date Added: 24th Apr 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Vendée (85))
Visited: Yes on 7th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: In a little forest clearing amongst the sand dunes to the north of Olonnes-sur-Mer, this 2 metre tall granite menhir is easily found due to the signposted footpaths. It leans slightly and has a pointed top. I suspect that there are others around here buried under the sand dunes.

Les Pierres Jumelles

Trip No.203  Entry No.283  Date Added: 24th Apr 2020
Site Type: Standing Stones Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Vendée (85))
Visited: Yes on 6th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 5 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: The Pierres Jumelles, or twin stones, are set into a little area beside the old road (which has now been bypassed twice) opposite to the aptly named Chateau Pierre Levée. The two stones are both about 4 metres high, but that is where the similarity between them ends.

One of the stones is a rounded block of lovely pink granite, while the other is a tall pointed grey stone. They are set about 6 metres apart from each other. The pink stone really does shine and sparkle in the evening sunlight - it really is a wonderful stone, and is one of my favourites of all I have seen. There is wonderful lichen growing on both menhirs.

C.A.I.R.N.

Trip No.203  Entry No.281  Date Added: 24th Apr 2020
Site Type: Museum Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Vendée (85))
Visited: Yes on 6th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 5 Ambience 5 Access 5

Log Text: What a nice find this is. In an area of numerous menhirs and dolmens is this lovely “living” museum which is easily found and signposted from all around. CAIRN (Centre Archéologique d'Initiation et de Recherche sur le Néolithique) is not only a museum with the usual displays of things and exhibitions but is a research and learning centre which delights in demonstrating ancient ways to people especially children.

When I Visited there was a fabulous temporary exhibition of megaliths in Ethiopia as well as one of the best displays of neolithic life and times in the locality with very interesting models and explanations of the types and developments of dolmens. The similarity between some of the Ethiopian exhibits and the local was immediately apparent which makes you realise how similar people from all over the world are.

But where this museum rates really world class is in its outdoor exhibits and reconstructions. I think the demonstrations are only done on days in July and August or if an occasion has been organised beforehand and I was lucky in that a school party was there for the day. Demonstrations are done showing how life was several millennia ago and there is a reconstruction Neolithic house and there are representative crops grown on site preparing and cooking with the children getting involved with things like grinding corn.

They have a new dolmen and tumulus they are building the erection of menhirs is demonstrated making of a log boat flint knapping stone polishing. It’s all here. They even have a set aside area for excavations to be made which is a sort of large sandpit split into metre squares with certain planted objects for the kids to dig up and discover. I saw one of the demonstration team lighting fire with sticks and hay in two minutes and the look on the children’s faces as he was doing this was just wonderful as if magic were being done.

When I said what I was doing it was suggested that I came back later to talk to the chap doing the demonstrations which I did. He seemed very interested in what I was doing trying to get as many French megalithic sites known and on the internet for all to see and said he thought exactly the same way in that the more these places are known the better protected they will be. He told me of many places in the vicinity which have been destroyed in recent years particularly the 1960’s and 1970’s despite them being scheduled monuments in the greed for farmers to make bigger more open fields. He told me of a story where he knew people who were living where there were two big menhirs within sight of their house and they were woken early one morning by them being dynamited in order to get rid of them.

Fontaine Saint Gré menhirs

Trip No.203  Entry No.279  Date Added: 24th Apr 2020
Site Type: Standing Stones Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Vendée (85))
Visited: Yes on 6th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: In the hedge beside the little lane which leads to the Fontaine Ste Gré, just beside the entrance to the field within which the spring is, can be found this menhir. It is about 2.5 metres tall, but very well hidden and overgrown within the hedge.

The other menhir is somewhere in a hedge beside the big pond below the spring, inside a private garden. I couldn’t find this one.

Fontaine Saint Gré tumulus

Trip No.203  Entry No.278  Date Added: 24th Apr 2020
Site Type: Chambered Cairn Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Vendée (85))
Visited: Yes on 6th Jun 2005. My rating: Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Not far from the Fontaine Ste Gré spring is the remains of a large long mound. At the eastern end of this mound is a large granite slab, which is the remains of a burial chamber.

Fontaine Saint Gré

Trip No.203  Entry No.277  Date Added: 24th Apr 2020
Site Type: Holy Well or Sacred Spring Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Vendée (85))
Visited: Yes on 6th Jun 2005. My rating: Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: This is an ancient spring and little pond in amongst some large granite blocks. The spring water seeps into the little pond from out of a fissure in one of the granite slabs at the side, from quite well above the water line.

There are two menhirs, a tumulus and ruined dolmen within a hundred metres of the spring, although they are quite difficult to determine amongst the natural stone in the area. The Fontaine is signposted from nearby and in the village.

Alignement dit de La Petite Pierre

Trip No.203  Entry No.275  Date Added: 24th Apr 2020
Site Type: Stone Row / Alignment Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Vendée (85))
Visited: Yes on 6th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 5 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: Just outside the grounds of the chateau, along the little lane which runs to the south west from Avrillé, can be found this nice setting of three stones at the roadside in a little grassy clearing. Two 2.5 metre tall stones are positioned either side of a 5.5 metre high monster. All have been shaped, and the back face of all three stones is very flat. Thinking about this, it is probably the front face of each stone which is flat, and these face towards the east, although this is currently forested.

This is a really nice setting of stones, of which there were once many more similar examples in the region, and indeed perhaps lines up with the Bois de Fourgon Alignments in the grounds of the Chateau, and the Camp de César menhir in the centre of Avrillé which itself was once the mid stone of a three stone setting. While here, there was a donkey going off loudly nearby, and several cockerels having a lot to say about matters.

La Sulette Dolmen

Trip No.203  Entry No.273  Date Added: 24th Apr 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Vendée (85))
Visited: Yes on 6th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 5 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: This is a pleasant find, as it has been fully excavated and restored in 1989 to 1991, and is now found completely within its mound. It is a small Angevin dolmen, with a 2 metre by 2 metre chamber made using 4 side stones with drystone walling between them. It has a single capstone, and again, it has a smoothed slab on the floor. The chamber opens to the outside at the east, where there is a small entrance portal.

Créchaudes Dolmen

Trip No.203  Entry No.272  Date Added: 24th Apr 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Vendée (85))
Visited: Yes on 6th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 2 Access 4

Log Text: Unless I somehow missed this dolmen, it is a wreck, not much more than several stones in a field. Alternatively, it may still be in its mound, of which there is an overgrown example at the side of the field.

Menhirs du Plessis

Trip No.203  Entry No.270  Date Added: 24th Apr 2020
Site Type: Standing Stones Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Vendée (85))
Visited: Yes on 6th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: At this site, there was once an equilateral triangle of three large menhirs, each 100 metres apart, but now only two remain after the eastern one was destroyed in 1860. They are easily found and well signposted in the locality.

The northern stone is a lovely dressed menhir 7.5 metres tall. It fell and was re-erected in 1977.

The southern menhir is much smaller than its neighbour, at about 4 metres high, but again is a very nicely dressed piece of granite. It is said that there was once a stone block with engravings at its foot, but this stone has now disappeared.