FT261

Heading down to the far south west of France, down to the ancient, arid landscapes of Languedoc and Roussillon, most fortean travellers will be primed for the mysteries of Rennes-le-Château. It may therefore come as a surprise that this dusty country harbours hundreds – perhaps thousands – of Neolithic dolmens and standing stones. The gigantic monuments of Brittany we know about: but here, in the heat haze of the Midi? Yet leave the autoroute and soon they appear, towering monoliths (menhirs) and squat dolmens, often marking an ancient crossroads, and equally often rendered inaccessible by barbed wire.

And this landscape hides something that even Brittany cannot claim to offer: massive stone circles, exceeded in size, in one case at least, only by that of Avebury in England.