Dolmen dit la Pierre-Levée (La Jarne)

Trip No.203  Entry No.253  Date Added: 23rd Apr 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Poitou:Charente-Maritime (17))
Visited: Yes on 5th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 2 Access 5

Log Text: This is a nice little dolmen sitting at the edge of the playing fields just outside the back of the church in the village of La Jarne. I am not sure exactly how original this dolmen is, as it looks like it might be a relatively modern reconstruction, and is stood in a gravel area with tell tale plastic sheeting under the new gravel surroundings. I could find no information about it.

Abri de Cro-Magnon

Trip No.203  Entry No.82  Date Added: 6th Apr 2020
Site Type: Cave or Rock Shelter Country: France (Aquitaine:Dordogne (24))
Visited: Yes on 19th May 2005. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Up a little track to the side of the Cro-Magnon hotel along the road to the railway station can be found this sad little UNESCO World Heritage site where the Cro-Magnon man was discovered in 1868 by Francois Berthoumeyron as they were clearing the way for the road to the railway station.

Despite all the hustle and bustle in Les Eyzies and all the attractions crying out for your visit this place does not even have a signpost. Its nothing much to see just a little rock shelter in the cliff face shaded by a couple of large chestnut trees with a little walled and fenced area around it. It looks a bit like a large garden feature or something from a cemetery tucked round the back and almost forgotten.

Once you have found it there is a sign in fact two the official UNESCO World Heritage site plate and a little plaque commemorating the discovery. I am surprised it is not a bit of a pilgrimage site like so many others around here in this village which thrives on its reputation as the home of Cro-Magnon man.

Abri de la Madeleine

Trip No.203  Entry No.85  Date Added: 6th Apr 2020
Site Type: Cave or Rock Shelter Country: France (Aquitaine:Dordogne (24))
Visited: Yes on 20th May 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 2

Log Text: You don’t actually really get to see the Abri de la Madeleine where all the prehistoric finds were made which gave their name to an epoch including the carved bison and the first harpoons. I guess to see this best you would need to canoe down the river but you can see the overhang and bits of it from the village and there is some display material in the visitor centre.

Abri de Lartet

Trip No.203  Entry No.84  Date Added: 6th Apr 2020
Site Type: Cave or Rock Shelter Country: France (Aquitaine:Dordogne (24))
Visited: Yes on 19th May 2005. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: This cliff shelter was discovered by Lartet in 1863 and is classed as a National Historic Monument. Its just a few metres up the valley side from its more famous neighbour Abri du Poisson.

Abri de Laugerie-Basse

Trip No.203  Entry No.66  Date Added: 5th Apr 2020
Site Type: Cave or Rock Shelter Country: France (Aquitaine:Dordogne (24))
Visited: Yes on 17th May 2005. My rating: Access 4

Log Text: Just to the northwest of Les Eyzies on the west bank of the river Vézère is found the ancient cliff settlement of Laugerie Basse. Gisements and shelters in the cliff face which have been inhabited since Cro Magnon man right up to this day.

Abri de Laugerie-Haute

Trip No.203  Entry No.77  Date Added: 5th Apr 2020
Site Type: Cave or Rock Shelter Country: France (Aquitaine:Dordogne (24))
Visited: Saw from a distance on 18th May 2005. My rating: Access 4

Log Text: Just to the northwest of Les Eyzies on the west bank of the river Vézère is found the ancient cliff settlement of Laugerie Haute. This was one of the biggest rock shelters anywhere and was inhabited since 50000 years ago. But much of the cliff roof fell down about 10000 years ago and wrecked the place. This had the effect of burying all the archaeology hence preserving it to the present day and preventing it being rebuilt and reused in the millennia past or being plundered in the last few centuries.

Abri de Ruth

Trip No.203  Entry No.76  Date Added: 5th Apr 2020
Site Type: Cave or Rock Shelter Country: France (Aquitaine:Dordogne (24))
Visited: Saw from a distance on 18th May 2005. My rating: Access 4

Log Text: Just to the south of the village of Le Moustoir on the west bank of the Vézère is found this collection of caves and a museum of artefacts. .Supposedly a very important place from where the stratigraphy of the various eras was determined. But getting on in the evening very tired after a long hilly bike ride when its shut it looks just like a cave in a cliff face in a garden to me !

Abri du Cap-Blanc

Trip No.203  Entry No.73  Date Added: 5th Apr 2020
Site Type: Cave or Rock Shelter Country: France (Aquitaine:Dordogne (24))
Visited: Yes on 18th May 2005. My rating: Condition 5 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: In this now walled up cliff shelter, there is a massive frieze of sculpted animals. It was discovered in about 1909, and still bears the scars of the picks used in the excavations, and some of the animals were destroyed. There are horses, bison and the main event, a 2 metre long horse and bison combined, the bison looking to the left, while the horse looks to the right.

This is a fantastic place to visit, but to be honest there is not so much to see as I thought there would be. And it was all spoiled by a coachload of geriatric Americans who would not shut up and listen, and went on and on and on..... I pretended to be French so that they would not try and talk to me, and so I could express my disgust at them !

Abri du Moustier

Trip No.203  Entry No.75  Date Added: 5th Apr 2020
Site Type: Cave or Rock Shelter Country: France (Aquitaine:Dordogne (24))
Visited: Saw from a distance on 18th May 2005. My rating: Access 4

Log Text: In the cliff face right opposite the main square in the delightful village of Le Moustoir on the west bank of the Vézère is found this World Heritage Site. Things found here gave its name to an entire epoch the Mousterien. But late on in the day on a long bike ride and wanting to get back (and knowing there's at least one more big hill in the way) it looked like more fenced and walled off bits of cliff face.

Abri du Poisson

Trip No.203  Entry No.83  Date Added: 6th Apr 2020
Site Type: Cave or Rock Shelter Country: France (Aquitaine:Dordogne (24))
Visited: Yes on 19th May 2005. My rating: Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Located in an open garden type area where there is a gap in the cliff face at the bottom of the Gorge D’Enfer on the south west side of the road out of Les Eyzies towards Périgueux about 1 kilometre after the bridge over the river and before Laugerie Basse. These days the abri is walled up and locked shut to enable people to pay to see inside and is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Apart from the traffic going past this is a nice quiet little place with a stream coming out from the cliff nearby and trickling down towards the river.

A typical little Abri at the bottom of the cliffs it was discovered in about 1912 that there is a life sized carving of a salmon on the ceiling. It has been dated to about 25000 years ago and is the oldest known representation of a fish in the world and one of only 10 known in cave art anywhere. It is thought that the ceiling was once completely painted over due to pigment found in cracks in the rocks and there is also a handprint part of a horse and some strange symbols to be seen.

Agranel Dolmen

Trip No.203  Entry No.207  Date Added: 21st Apr 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Midi:Lot (46))
Visited: Couldn't find on 31st May 2005

Log Text: This dolmen marked on the ign 1:25000 map is at the top of a hill in a well fenced off area of scrubland with no obvious parking place so I didn’t bother too hard to try and find it.

Alignement de Leintant

Trip No.203  Entry No.547  Date Added: 2nd Jun 2020
Site Type: Stone Row / Alignment Country: France (Bretagne:Finistère (29))
Visited: Couldn't find on 23rd Jun 2005

Log Text: Row of fallen menhirs now incorporated into a bank at the edge of a field. I could find no trace of this alignment, supposed to contain one standing and three fallen menhirs, which was said to align on mid-summer sunrise. I found the farm, and went up and down the road several times, with no luck. Supposedly, the standing stone is nearly 4 metres tall and beside the road.....

Alignement de Lostmarc'h 1

Trip No.203  Entry No.495  Date Added: 27th May 2020
Site Type: Stone Row / Alignment Country: France (Bretagne:Finistère (29))
Visited: Yes on 19th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 3

Log Text: What I could find of the Lostmarc'h alignements, on top of a headland overlooking the Atlantic Ocean with a fine surf beach below to the south, was a line of eight stones aligned at an angle of 060°/240° running across the headland. None of the stones are much more than a metre in height, and they are spaced about 6 metres apart from each other. There are several other stones laying about, perhaps the remains of other rows.

Further out on the headland are a lot more stones at N48.2150° W4.5561°. Its hard to make out any clear pattern, but its possibly the remains of at least 4 rows. Further stones can be seen dotted about all over the place. Perhaps this was once a big important centre.

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.

Alignement dit le Rocher

Trip No.203  Entry No.12  Date Added: 30th Mar 2020
Site Type: Stone Row / Alignment Country: France (Bretagne:Ille-et-Vilaine (35))
Visited: Saw from a distance on 13th May 2005

Log Text: To the east of Saint Just village I spent no time looking for this menhir as it was by now pouring with rain, although I thought I saw something near a farmhouse as I drove past.

Alignements de Gueldro

Trip No.203  Entry No.446  Date Added: 23rd May 2020
Site Type: Stone Row / Alignment Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Couldn't find on 16th Jun 2005

Log Text: I had three attempts at finding the remnants of this once important set of eight parallel rows, but found nothing. The best I found was a bit of uncultivated land, completely covered in gorse and not possible to get to, which was in about the right place, so that was probably it. I found no signs or any other reference to it until afterwards, and the place I found was definately the right place.

Alignements de Ty-ar-C'huré

Trip No.203  Entry No.492  Date Added: 27th May 2020
Site Type: Stone Row / Alignment Country: France (Bretagne:Finistère (29))
Visited: Couldn't find on 19th Jun 2005

Log Text: I went for quite a walk to look for these, but in the end found nothing. They are at the top of a hill in a wood, protected by lots of gorse and bracken overgrown heathland, with no obvious pathway through.

Alignements du Moulin N

Trip No.203  Entry No.1  Date Added: 30th Mar 2020
Site Type: Stone Row / Alignment Country: France (Bretagne:Ille-et-Vilaine (35))
Visited: Yes on 13th May 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: There are two long roughly parallel lines running east west with a third less well defined row to the southwest running in a north south direction. The first row reached is the northernmost and consists of at least 14 large white quartz blocks with a few grey stones in it as well with an alignment of 099°. One of the large stones towards the western end has been used at some later stage as a part of a burial chamber with at least two burial cists to be seen adjacent to it.

Just to the south of this row is another row, with an alignment of 111° but this time consisting of taller thinner stones of various types and colours, which get bigger in size towards the middle where the row runs over a cairn and then get smaller again. The stones start off about a metre high but the stones in the middle are up to 5 metres tall. These central stones alternate between white blocks and black blocks of stone with various other colours and shapes being mixed in as well.

I absolutely love this row. It is completely bonkers. So weird. The whole place is odd and not like anything else I have seen. Large white blocks and tall thin black stones. All mixed up and running across this ridge.

The third row I found consists of about 5 white quartz blocks to the west of the ends of the two main rows and running in a north south direction. I am not sure if this is the third row considered to be a part of these same alignments. All three rows appear to converge on a point to the northwest. They have started to clear the gorse away from these stones and I disturbed a large vividly coloured green lizard at one point here.

Alignements du Moulin S

Trip No.203  Entry No.2  Date Added: 30th Mar 2020
Site Type: Stone Row / Alignment Country: France (Bretagne:Ille-et-Vilaine (35))
Visited: Yes on 13th May 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: There are two long roughly parallel lines running east west with a third less well defined row to the southwest running in a north south direction. The first row reached is the northernmost and consists of at least 14 large white quartz blocks with a few grey stones in it as well with an alignment of 099°. One of the large stones towards the western end has been used at some later stage as a part of a burial chamber with at least two burial cists to be seen adjacent to it.

Just to the south of this row is another row, with an alignment of 111° but this time consisting of taller thinner stones of various types and colours, which get bigger in size towards the middle where the row runs over a cairn and then get smaller again. The stones start off about a metre high but the stones in the middle are up to 5 metres tall. These central stones alternate between white blocks and black blocks of stone with various other colours and shapes being mixed in as well. I absolutely love this row. It is completely bonkers. So weird. The whole place is odd and not like anything else I have seen. Large white blocks and tall thin black stones. All mixed up and running across this ridge.

The third row I found consists of about 5 white quartz blocks to the west of the ends of the two main rows and running in a north south direction. I am not sure if this is the third row considered to be a part of these same alignments. All three rows appear to converge on a point to the northwest. They have started to clear the gorse away from these stones and I disturbed a large vividly coloured green lizard at one point here.

Alignements du Moulin W

Trip No.203  Entry No.3  Date Added: 30th Mar 2020
Site Type: Stone Row / Alignment Country: France (Bretagne:Ille-et-Vilaine (35))
Visited: Yes on 13th May 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: There are two long roughly parallel lines running east west with a third less well defined row to the southwest running in a north south direction. The first row reached is the northernmost and consists of at least 14 large white quartz blocks with a few grey stones in it as well with an alignment of 099°. One of the large stones towards the western end has been used at some later stage as a part of a burial chamber with at least two burial cists to be seen adjacent to it.

Just to the south of this row is another row, with an alignment of 111° but this time consisting of taller thinner stones of various types and colours, which get bigger in size towards the middle where the row runs over a cairn and then get smaller again. The stones start off about a metre high but the stones in the middle are up to 5 metres tall. These central stones alternate between white blocks and black blocks of stone with various other colours and shapes being mixed in as well. I absolutely love this row. It is completely bonkers. So weird. The whole place is odd and not like anything else I have seen. Large white blocks and tall thin black stones. All mixed up and running across this ridge.

The third row I found consists of about 5 white quartz blocks to the west of the ends of the two main rows and running in a north south direction. I am not sure if this is the third row considered to be a part of these same alignments. All three rows appear to converge on a point to the northwest. They have started to clear the gorse away from these stones and I disturbed a large vividly coloured green lizard at one point here.