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Grande Dolmen From Saumur head SW on the N147 and follow signs for Bagneux. When you leave the Saumur city limits there are a couple of signs to the dolmen about a mile further on. Look for a sign pointing to the left and take the narrow road here to a parking space beside the pavement near a café. The entrance is beside the café and you have to ring a bell to get let in. The entrance fee is 3 Euros each.
This is the largest burial chamber in France and it is huge. The car parked beside it was dwarfed by the stones. The stones are estimated to weigh over 500 tons. There are two parallel rows of four large upright slabs and a huge end slab that support three massive capstones and a fourth that is smaller near the entrance.. The tomb itself measures around 90 square metres inside and the chamber is 23m (75ft) long outside. The internal measurements are 18m (60ft) long and 7.6m (25ft) wide. Inside the huge chamber is a single standing stone helping to support one of the massive capstones. There are two portal stones, one has been restored and a further two smaller portal slabs outside the chamber at the SSE entrance as well as a further huge fallen slab.
It was first excavated in 1775 but nothing is known to have been found here. Inside the café is an exhibition of fossils and Neolithic tools as well as some interesting old postcards and copies of early etchings of the site. |
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