Travel Guide Le Bernard

Also called the Carnac of the Vendée, this commune, 5 kilometers from Avrillé, offers several megalithic sites. The dolmen of the cour de Breuil and the dolmens of Savatole, as well as the dolmen of the Pierre-Folle-du-Plessis, serve as an appetizer before discovering the dolmen of the Frébouchère (located rue de la Frébouchère). Classified as a historical monument, it is certainly the largest dolmen in the Vendée. It dates from the Neolithic period (more than 5000 years ago). This megalithic tomb has a so-called Angevin architecture: it has a portico, a rectangular room. The rectangular room (7 m long) is covered with a huge slab of 9 m length and 5 m width. Its weight is estimated at 100 tons. Let's stay in prehistory with the Plessis menhirs, all registered as Historic Monuments, and which are respectively 6.20 m and 3.60 m high. Another block, the menhir of Grand Plessis, is lying in a field. It is 5.60 m high and 3 m wide. But by the way, do you know the difference between a dolmen and a menhir ? It's easy: the menhir is a single raised stone, generally isolated or belonging to an alignment (as in Carnac, in Brittany); the dolmen, on the other hand, is a table! We finish the overview of the Bernard's heritage with the fountain of Saint-Gré, which seems to be an insignificant pond, but the basin installed at the foot of a spring emerging from a fault in the rock with the nearby menhirs testifying to the presence of an ancient place of pilgrimage.