France contains large numbers of megalithic monuments.  Of dolmens and corridor-tombs no less than 4458 have been recorded.  In the east and south-east they are rare, but they abound over a wide strip running from the Breton coasts of the English Channel to the Mediterranean shores of Herault and Card.  In 1901 Mortillef counted 6192 menhirs, including those which formed parts of alignements and cromlechs.  Several of these attain to a great size.  That to Locmariaquer (Morbihan), now unfortunately fallen and broken, measured over 60 feet in height, being thus not much shorter than the Egyptian obelisk which stands in the Place de la Concorde in Paris.

Passing now to combinations of menhirs in groups, we must first mention the remarkable alignements of Brittany, of which the most famous are those of Carnac.  They run east and west over a distance of 3300 yards, but the line is broken at two points in such a way that the whole forms three groups.  The most westerly, that of Menec, consists of eleven lines of menhirs and a cromlech, the total number of stones standing being 1169, the tallest of which is 13 feet in height.  The central group, that of Kermario, consists of 982 stones arranged in ten straight lines, while the most easterly, that of Kerlescan, is formed by 579 menhirs, 39 of which form a rectangular enclosure.

There are other alignements in Brittany, of which the most important is that of Erdeven, comprising 1129 stones arranged in ten lines.  Outside Brittany alignements are unusual, but a fine example, now ruined, is said to have existed at Saint Pantaleon north of Autun.  In the fields around it are found large quantities of polished stone axes with knives, scrapers, and arrow-heads of flint.

We have already noticed the cromlechs which form part of the alignements of Brittany.  There are other examples in France.  At Er-Lanic are two circles touching one another, the lower of which is covered by the sea even at low tide.  Excavations carried out within the circles brought to light rough pottery and axes of polished stone.  Two fine circles at Can de Ceyrac (Gard) have diameters of about 100 yards, and are formed of stones about 3 feet high.  Each has a short entrance avenue which narrows as it approaches the circle, and in the centre of each rises a trilithon of rough stones.

Of the definitely sepulchral monuments the dolmen is common in all parts of the French megalithic area.  It will suffice to mention the magnificent example known as the Table des Marchands at Locmariaquer.  Perhaps the most typical structure in France is the corridor-tomb in which the chamber is indistinguishable from the passage, and the whole forms a long rectangular area.  This is the allee couverte in the narrower sense.  In the department of Oise occurs a special type of this in which one of the end-slabs has a hole pierced in its centre and is preceded by a small portico consisting of two uprights supporting a roof-slab (Fig 10).  A remarkable example in Brittany known as Les Pierres Plates turns at a sharp angle in the middle, and is thus elbow-shaped.