Friday 3 September 2010

Chillou du Feuillet

Yesterday Susan and I had cause to be in Descartes: Célestine visited M.Musseau to have her new exhaust pipe tightened up.

While we were there we did the weekly shop (yes, even windswept and interesting people with full and active lives have to visit the supermarché), called into the Tourist Office to drop off some publicity, and then took the opportunity to ask about a dolmen I have seen mentioned, but never described. Most places that mention it do not have a proper location for it, but the ladies at the Descartes Tourist Office are better than that, and described how to get there in detail.

The stone on top of the burial chamber is about 4 metres long and 2.5 metres across. It dates from 3,500BC, and in 1955 an excavation discovered some flakes of silex (stone tools) some pottery, and six human teeth. The local legend mentions it as part of the Gargantua legend.

We have marked the location of the stone on our map here. It probably isn't worth taking a trip just to see, but if you're in the area it is well worth a couple of minutes of anyone's time to stand there and contemplate how long the history of this area is.

Simon

2 comments:

Tim said...

Well said Simon... it really gives you a sense of continuity when you are faced with the ancients!
But surely it was Obelix who moved these stones around... not Gargantua?

Diogenes said...

Fascinating. The link to the Gargantua picture gives a real idea of the scale of these things...and as you point out, they illustrate the long history of France.

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