Phil Watson

This is a view into the vestibule of the Seine-Oise-Marne type allée couverte of La Pierre aux Fées in Villers-St-Sépulcre (Oise) showing the “porthole” slab which separated it from the chamber. Card by Levy in Paris 1905 or earlier.

You usually find they come together in groups of 3 or 4 and then none for half an hour! 😡

The dolmen of La Haute Pierre in Villiers-au-Bouin (Indre-et-Loire) has a 4x3m capstone now resting on 3 orthostats; a 4th and the terminal slab had been robbed by 1894. Probably remains of a passage grave. Card By Laussedat pre-1904.

The menhir in the middle of a field at La Garnerie just north of Avrillé (Vendée) is 5.2m tall and may once have had a twin. Card first issued by Poupin in Mortagne numbered 22 and re-issued after his combination with Jehly numbered 519.

This is the magnificent dolmen of La Roche aux Fées in Essé (Ille-et-Vilaine). Internal dimensions of the chamber are 14m long, 4m wide and 2m high with a 3.5m long antechamber entered through a trilith portal entrance. #TombTuesday.

This is the simple dolmen of Rostudel in Crozon (Finistère) with a single capstone resting on 3 orthostats looking very impressive on this card by Levy. But don’t be deceived by photography – it is little more than 1m tall, often lost to view from the road among vegetation.

For #StandingStoneSunday today - the tallest menhir from the alignements at St-Pierre-Quiberon (Morbihan) known as The Great Monk from its distinctive outline. Just over 20 menhirs remain from rows which originally stretched out into the Bay of Quiberon. Card by Henri Laurent in Port-Louis 1905.

Just sitting alone by a dolmen – in this case the V-shaped passage grave of Kermario in Carnac before its restoration in the 1920s. This card by Le Rouzic was first issued pre-1904 and continued to be issued up to the 1920s with at least 9 different print runs.

Or remains of cairn? The examples in the source are a pin for people and a piece of red chalk for a man's pigs.

The dolmen of Chez-Moutaud in St-Auvent (Haute-Vienne) has a 4.7x4.2m capstone resting on a single broad taller orthostat on the east and three lower smaller ones on the west. Sick people and animals could be cured by walking around it and leaving a small offering.

The menhir of La Pierre Droite near Le Paly in Milly-la-Forêt (Essonne) is 4m tall and 1-9m wide at the base of its broadest side. It seems to have an unspecified association with Gargantua. Card by E. Le Deley in Paris 1910s.

The menhir of Les Boisselées near Le Repaire in Esse (Charente) is 2.65m tall. A report in 1844 claims that followers of Charlemagne burned candles around it in 789 but gives no source. Card by Cassan in Confolens pre-1904.

Les Mousseaux in Pornic has 2 transepted passage graves in a single 15x13m 3-stepped mound. This card by Chapeau in Nantes from 1910 shows the entrances to both tombs and the amount of surviving cairn material. It was restored in the 1970s. #TombTuesday.

There are 2 Iron Age steles in the churchyard of La Chapelle N.D. de la Croix in Plélauff (Côtes-d’Armor) which were originally on the other side of the road. One is just over 3m tall, the other less than 1m.

One face of the 7.8m tall menhir of Menoignon in Plounéour-Trez (Finistère) is flat and smooth and almost a regular triangle. Card by Hamonic in St-Brieuc early 1910s. #StandingStoneSunday.

Les Tablettes in Cournon (Morbihan) is an outlying example of a dolmen angevin with 2 capstones on 10 orthostats. The floor of the 5m long chamber is below ground level. Card by Dechelette in Rennes c.1904.

The dolmen in the centre of Carnac-Plage was originally in the suburb of Kerallan about 1km to the north with a slipped capstone and 3 orthostats. It was moved and reconstructed in the 1920s. Card by Le Rouzic c.1905.

Le Pierrefitte in St-Sulpice-de-Faleyrens (Gironde) is the biggest in SW France at 5.2m tall. A hole bored into it at an unknown date was used for offerings. It was dropped there by the Virgin, marked the site of buried treasure and could cure rheumatism.

There seems to be no tradition to explain why the dolmen in St-Germain-de-Tallevende (Calvados) is known as La Loge aux Sarrazins. It has a single capstone part of which broke off in C18 on 4 orthostats; a 5th was moved in C19. Card by Leclerc pre-1904.

The chamber of the dolmen de Briande in Arçay (Vienne) is 10m long and almost 2m wide. Seven orthostats survive which support a single capstone now broken in two. Card by Dando-Berry in Loudun c. 1905. #TombTuesday.

Two menhirs in Olonne-sur-Mer (Vendée) are known as Les Jumelles (the Twins). They stand 5m apart and both are 4m tall. One is a typical menhir, referred to alone as La Pierre Levée; the other is a more rounded block. Card by Poupin and in print by 1904.

The menhir of La Pierre Longue in Iffendic (Ille-et-Vilaine) is a slab of schist just over 4m tall. Its broad faces are orientated to the east and west. This card by Mary-Rousselière in Rennes was in print by 1905. #StandingStoneSunday.

The site at Keravel in Roscoff (Finistère) had a 20m long chamber with a 3.5m passage on one side. Sections had been robbed for stone in C19 so early descriptions saw it as 3 simple dolmens. What remained was destroyed in the 1940s.

The site at Rondossec in Plouharnel (Morbihan) has 3 well preserved passage graves still set within a 20m diameter mound; only their capstones visible from the outside. This card has dolmen B in the centre, C in the top right and A in the bottom left.

The alignments of Kermario in Carnac (Morbihan) comprise over 1,000 menhirs stretching for just over 1km in several rows. The tallest ones are at the W end from where this “general view” by Villard in Quimper was taken. It was published before 1903.

The Peyro-Lebado in Lacaune (Tarn) is one of the biggest statue-menhirs in Europe at 4.5m tall and 1.85m wide. Made of granite from 3km away, its features are badly eroded but traces of a belt and other details suggest it represented a male figure.

La Pierre Couverte in Duneau (Sarthe) is a dolmen angevin with 2 orthostats on each side and a terminal slab forming a 5.5x2.5m chamber covered by a single 7m long capstone which has broken in two. #TombTuesday.

The dolmen of La Maison des Fées in St-Lambert-la-Potherie has a rectangular chamber roofed with 2 large capstones one of which has slipped due to the collapse of an orthostat on the N side. Disturbed stones nearby may be from an antechamber or trilith portal entrance.

The menhir near La Croterie in Chauvé (Loire-Atlantique) is over 4m tall, 3.5m wide at the base of the broad face and 1.5m thick. A recumbent stone nearby may have been a twin or may never have stood. Card by Chapeau early 1910s. #StandingStoneSunday.

This is a view into the entrance of the 8m long allée couverte on Ile-Grande in Pleumeur-Bodou (Côtes-d’Armor); the slabs on the left are kerbstones to support the cairn. The fairies who lived there would come out and dance with anyone passing on nights with a full moon.