Menhir de Couëtcas

Trip No.203  Entry No.303  Date Added: 26th Apr 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Loire-Atlantique)
Visited: Couldn't find on 8th Jun 2005

Log Text: At the village of Avrillac, near St-André-des-Eaux, is marked a dolmen and menhir on my maps. I parked my van and had a good look all around, including a 3 kilometre walk around various lanes, but I saw nothing, and there was nobody to ask. Whatever megalithic remains there might be here are either in somebodies garden, or hidden away out of sight in the large wooded area.

Having just crossed the Loire, I am now in Brittany, and I thought that finding these stones would get easier from now on, especially after the multitudes of signposted menhirs I had found this afternoon.

Pierre Pointue (Paimboeuf)

Trip No.203  Entry No.302  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 2 Ambience 2 Access 4

Log Text: In the southeastern area of the town of Paimboeuf, amongst a housing estate, can be found a Rue de la menhir. Following this road from the main road, there is a right angled bend to the right, and a couple more older houses before you get to a building site for new houses. The menhir is somewhere down here, but well enough hidden that I couldnt find it. I asked an old gent who was out in his garden where the menhir was. He was delighted that I was there looking for it, and he showed me to a nearby house with a large wall around the garden, and pointed it out within the garden. He said he had complained to the Mairie several times about the new owner of the house building the wall, and hiding the menhir away from view, saying that as a historic monument it should be readily visible to all. It is about 1.6 metres tall, and can be seen over the top of the wall.

Cassis Menhir

Trip No.203  Entry No.301  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: In the middle of a field of Barley, this large menhir is signposted from the village.

La Haute Gedeliere Dolmen

Trip No.203  Entry No.300  Date Added: 26th Apr 2020
Site Type: Passage Grave Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Loire-Atlantique)
Visited: Yes on 8th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 2 Access 3

Log Text: I don’t think they want you to see this dolmen, although it is signposted from the road and again at the site. Firstly, I had to contend with a "Danger, Taureau" (danger, bull) sign, and then after this a couple of barbed wire fences. The dolmen is about half a kilometre across the second field, and in the end of a garden backing onto it, with masses of bushes and brambles guarding it. The poor remains are in a right old state, and seem to be used as a garden dump area, and regular bonfires are had amongst the stones. It was very hard to see what the remains may have looked like over the top of all the undergrowth.

Menhir dit la Pierre Bonde

Trip No.203  Entry No.299  Date Added: 26th Apr 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Loire-Atlantique)
Visited: Couldn't find on 8th Jun 2005

Log Text: I found a signpost pointing down a track to this menhir, but could only park the campervan by blocking the lane. Following the track, it divided into three, and there was no indication which way to go to the menhir. I had a quick look along two of the possible directions, but I found no stone before I decided I had better move on. I have since found that the stone may be quite some distance walk along one of the tracks, but which one I still do not know.

Les Pierres Blanches (Corsept)

Trip No.203  Entry No.298  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 2 Ambience 2 Access 4

Log Text: At first I thought that there were three small menhirs here, not much more than a metre in height or fallen, but upon closer inspection (from a distance due to them being in a farmyard with a very active guard dog) it looked more like two menhirs and a pile of stone. There are perhaps others nearby.

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.

La Table Submergée

Trip No.203  Entry No.292  Date Added: 26th Apr 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Vendée (85))
Visited: Saw from a distance on 8th Jun 2005

Log Text: Out in the sea and mudflats, a kilometre or two off from the northeastern coast of Ile Noirmoutier, is a dolmen which can be seen at low tide. I reckon I can see it through my binoculars, there's a very table like rock out there, and nothing else to be seen. There is a boat moored nearby, probably fishing.

La Pointe de l'Herbaudière dolmen

Trip No.203  Entry No.291  Date Added: 24th Apr 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Vendée (85))
Visited: Couldn't find on 7th Jun 2005

Log Text: I camped for the night at the large campsite which now occupies most of the northern point of the Ile Noirmoutiers, but could find no signs of any dolmen. The chap running the campsite said he had no knowledge of any dolmen there. There are however, lots of concrete bunkers, blockhouses and gun emplacements, no doubt built by the Germans in World War 2 as part of the Atlantic defenses. These have no doubt been built on and destroyed any dolmen which might once have been here.

There was a fantastic sunset over the sea and smaller offshore islands from here, with many lighthouses flashing away at various points all around. The swallows flying around here are amazing, into and out of the bunkers, swooping low over the grasslands and in and out of the little cliff faces. Wish I could fly like them. Then the bats came out to play. What a lovely place.

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.

La Meinge du Diable

Trip No.203  Entry No.286  Date Added: 24th Apr 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Vendée (85))
Visited: Couldn't find on 7th Jun 2005

Log Text: I found a signpost to this one, but despite walking along every track and footpath in the vicinity, I found no semblance of any menhir. I wish that when there are signposts from the road, they are followed up later. I must have walked many miles in the baking hot sun here. At least it should be doing me good.

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.