EAST OF
BRITTANY
part IIIa

...continued

High up on the vista-rich watershed
between the beautiful rivers Lot and C é l é , a rough-hewn monolithic limestone cross stands a few metres from a dolmen on the Pilgrim Road from Figeac and the shrines of Western Auvergne to Santiago de Compostela. This is one of the most poetic dolmens of France.

Dolmen de P é gouries , Gr é alou (Lot)

Most of the tombs on the limestone plateaux lurk - well-camouflaged by moss or lichen - in the open, primeval woodland of oak, sweet chestnut and juniper which occupies thousands of square miles.

Dolmen de Parra, Limogne (Lot) with its mossy roofstones.

Dolmen de Parra seen from the rear

Another mossy "box-dolmen" at Rastouillet, Limogne (Lot)

Dolmen des Quatre Routes, Saint-Jean-de-Laur (Lot)

Dolmen du Lac d'Auri é , Limogne (Lot)

Le Tombeau du Géant (Giant's Grave) , Saint-Cirq (Tarn-et-Garonne)

Just one or two of the more accessible have been partially-reconstructed with the aid of concrete.

Vaour (Tarn)
Detail of underside of broken, re-erected capstone

Where the Western Causses descend into the plain which divides them from the Pyrenees lie less box-like tombs such as that near Verdier (Tarn)...

Dolmen de Saint-Pierre , Verdier (Tarn)

...not far from which, on the other side of the village, is a large limestone slab, some 2.5 metres high and wide, but only half a metre thick, close to a little tree-lined tributary of the river Aveyron.

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two of the most imposing tombs in Languedoc-Roussillon.