It was an old story, even in the seventies when Mr Bonnet, Mayor of Carnac and former Minister, said, “It’s time the stones became profitable”.

 In the eighties : The stones are neglected, covered in luxuriant vegetation. For seven years the State takes charge of their maintenance, using tractors and weedkiller to destroy the vegetation and leave the ground bare.

1991 : The Minister for Culture announces a project called “Grand Carnac” with the purpose of restoring and developing the site. On the pretext that tourism is responsible for destroying the vegetation, the project foresees the total closure of the alignments. Also announced is the future acquisition of land around the menhirs – some 250 ha – for the development of tourism. Ten km of steel fencing is built around the menhirs at a cost of 6,4 million Fr (or 976,000 €) ; watchmen are recruited for security.

The “Archéoscope” visitor building is constructed in concrete by a private company, close to the Ménec Alignments, authorized by the State despite it’s being illegal because close to an historic monument.

A temporary viewing platform is built overlooking the Kermario Alignments, “very ugly” according to the Mayor of Carnac, yet he signs the authorisation, at a cost of 1,6 million Fr  (or 244,000 €).

 1994 : Expenditure (at taxpayer expense) of 100 million Fr (or 15,245,000 €) is forecast for diverting roads, expropriating people, acquiring 120 ha of land, and building a massive reception centre. Our bulletin “Le Menhir Libre" is launched to reveal the unsavoury background of this purely commercial business proposal. Following pressure from the local population the temporary viewing platform is taken down at a cost of 64,000 €. Some months later a new welcome centre, also provisional, is set up in a more discreet location.

1996 : A Public Interest Enquiry is held ; 87 % of public opinion is unfavourable to the project. Nevertheless the Inspectors’ opinion is favourable. Menhirs Libres starts legal proceedings.

 1997 : The Declaration of Public Interest is issued. Menhirs Libres takes the matter before the Rennes Tribunal asking that it be quashed.

 1998 : Landholding enquiry ; 250 ha are sought, and more than 250 Carnac people affected by expropriation. The “standing stones” rebel and go to Paris in November ; 800 people demonstrate at the Ministry of Culture. An arbitrator is appointed – PJ Mohen, Director of French Museums. The Rennes Tribunal dismisses the appeal by Menhirs Libres.

 1999 : The Mohen report is published on the internet with a press campaign from the Ministry, repeating the previous project with a few changes of detail.

 2000 : Menhirs Libres submits a petition with 17300 signatures to the European Parliament in Brussels.

 2002 : A 41-day peaceful occupation of the old viewing site, asking the State to return its gigantic project to the drawing-board (2300 square metres of building work, parking charges, shops, the expropriation of property)

The Association Menhirs Libres wins its appeal before the Nantes Tribunal. The Declaration of Public Interest is annulled since it violates the coastline law – the menhirs are less than 2km from the sea – and the town planning code. The Minister of Culture visits the site and says he wants to see a project with a light touch which has respect for the environment and for local people.

 2003 : The Archéoscope ceases to be a private business and becomes the Welcome Centre for the Ministry of Culture.

 2004 : Thanks to the actions led by the Association Menhirs Libres, landowners expropriated by the State get back their property.

 2005 :  The State creates a new organisation : G.I.P.C. (Public Interest  and Cultural Group) whose the mission is to prepare a new project. 

 Today : The new plans are being prepared in the back-rooms of the Government, in silence. No information has reached us. Why ? Public opinion will be angered if they persist with the idea of wanting to make a profit out of our ancestors’ legacy...

         Makes the following proposals for human- scale

                                                         tourism  in harmony  with the  environment.

                                Better things can be done to protect the alignments while retaining free and unrestricted access.

•         Remove the steel fencing as soon as possible.

•         Free access, without charge, to the interior, with a possibility of guided visits.

•         No more destruction of the vegetation by tractors and weedkiller. Let the gorse grow around the menhirs, keeping it under control so

                  that it does not affect their visibility. That will be the best and most attractive form of protection for the alignments.

•         In the event of exceptionally dry weather, a discreet rope on posts will prohibit access. Visitors would be informed that it is a

                  temporary measure.

•        Disperse the carparking to avoid the problems of too great a concentration of visitors.

•        Construct three welcome points, one for each alignment. They should be small, in the local style, not visible from the menhirs, with

                  sanitation, rest-rooms and telephone facilities.

•        Set up multi-lingual information boards.

•         The Carnac Museum should be clearly signed up and its existence indicated around the site.

•         Wardens or rangers will be needed in the summer, to ensure that the stones are respected and for the security of visitors.

•         The road alongside the alignments should not be moved to the south, but made one-way, part being reserved as footpath and a

                  cycle-track with a separation of low hedges.

•         Clean up and sign the many other megaliths in the area, for the most part undiscoverable, lost in the depth of the woods. They will

                  help with the dispersal of visitors and give a much better idea of the variety of megalithic remains in this region.

•        To sum up, simple measures, not costly, creating jobs – guides, maintenance workers, wardens and rangers – will allow this

                   wonderful site to keep its beauty and charm, its mystery and its tranquillity.

From Carnac comes the astonishing news that the French government ’s much-vilified ‘Menhirland ’project (see 3rd Stone 43)has been abandoned.The reprieve follows several months of renewed confrontation at the cele- brated alignments,which have been fought over by government planners and local residents since the first perimeter fences were raised in 1991. The latest round began on Sunday 25 August 2002 at Kermario, the most contested of the three fenced alignments in the Carnac area. Demonstrators from a wide-ranging alliance of pressure groups occupied the viewing platform,located the keys to all three alignments and threw them open to the public. Leading the occupation were members of Menhirs Libres,the most vociferous of the many opponents of the government ’s plans.These included their vice-presidents, Eugene Riguidel,a celebrated Breton yachtsman,and Christian Obeltz,a folk musician and amateur archaeol- ogist who lives in a tiny house amongst the stones with his wife and child,and whose extensive field knowledge of the vast ritual land- scape makes him Carnac ’s equivalent of John Aubrey or William Stukeley. The members of Menhirs Libres were joined by representatives of La Conféderation Paysanne,the countrywide union for small-scale French farmers,whose leader,José Bové,has been arrested on numerous occasions for uprooting GM crops, and who once dismantled a McDonald ’s store as a protest.There were other environmentalists from an organization called Keep It Blue,and representatives of a number of radical Breton political groups - Sindikad Labourien Breizh,Bemdez, Emgann -as well as members of the more sedate Maritime Conféderation. Together,these groups called themselves Holl A Gevred (‘all together ’in Breton,appropri- ately enough).Their occupation began during Carnac ’s great end-of- summer festival,when teepees sprout from the stone-scattered land- scape,there is music and dancing, and mussels and fries are washed down with rivers of cider. On the day,spokesman Yann Riguidel told the press that they were not backing down until the project was cancelled,and although the authorities seized back control of two of the alignments in the weeks that followed,the occu- pation of Kermario continued. Eugene Riguidel explained the group ’s motivation:‘We want the stones -all the stones -to be cher- ished,to be protected,but not to be fenced in with enclosures which destroy the beauty and atmosphere of this magical place ’.(John Lichfield,The Independent ,15 September 2002) At the time,John Lichfield suggested,‘The battle of Carnac has settled,for the time being,into a typically French stand-off.The authorities show no willingness to evict the protestors from the site. Nor have they shown any intention to listen to their criticism ’.The stalemate was broken unexpectedly on 5 October,after 41 days ’occupa- tion,when around a hundred people,arriving for a further demonstration against the project outside the mayor ’s office in the town of Carnac,were involved in a fracas with the police in which five unarmed protestors were injured by truncheon blows.The website Gael Fontana called its article on the day ’s events ‘Military violence at Carnac ’. (gael.fontana.free.fr/coeur/carnac.ht m)Under the pressure,the occupa- tion dissolved. All was not lost,however. The occupation was not just a polit- ical demonstration of free access;it was also meant as a headline-grab- bing tactic,to coincide with the culmination of Menhirs Libres ’four year legal struggle to prove that the government had broken a specific law that prohibits the raising of any kind of structure close to the stones. 

You were undoubtedly very disappointed when meeting with these inelegant fences preventing you from coming and going along the rows of stones as you would have liked to do. Let us tell you that we can't agree with you more.As Stonehenge was related as a " National Disgrace " by the British newspapers, Carnac might irretriviably meet with the same disgrace if we don't respond now. It is very cheap and even shocking to hear the French Ministry of Culture or the commune of Carnac blaming visitors for " trampling " upon the vegetation and, as a consequence, for being the very cause of the setting of more and more " protection " around our famous megalithic monument.

What you must know is that that so-called restoration means : Ø £10,000,000 investment Ø Kicking local villagers out of their homes and pulling their houses down. Ø Destroying many ancient footpaths. Ø Massive tree-felling. Ø Digging some prickly ditches and planting a thick hedgerow to keep people away from the monument. Ø Changing the nature of the site by building a hudge rest center and car-parks. Ø Getting an entrance fee from visitors who will only be allowed to watch the monument. Ø Destroying one of the most picturesque country roads in Carnac. Ø Building a new road just a few meters further south to the Kermario alignements on archeological layers which will probably not be studied seriously. Ø Concentrating a so-called restoration upon only one site while hundreds are left in derelict condition in surrounding areas. Ø Taking possession of 590 acres of land (!) when only 90 acres are covered with alignements.

What we want is : Ø The numerous untidy megalithic monuments in the area to be really restored. Ø The growing of the local gorse, broom, heather,… which have always been the best prevention against any assault from unrespectful people. Ø The right to walk among the stones to be maintained provided measures would be taken to lead the visitors along convenient paths throughout the site, especially in summer. Ø Decent-sized car-parks should be created in different places along the site in order to prevent people from trampling upon the same area every day, especially in summer. Ø The nearby D.196 road to be planned and its appreciated picturesque route to be kept unchanged. Ø Local villagers not to be expelled and houses not to be destroyed. Ø The local population and the archeological museum in the town of Carnac to be taken into account in that state project.  Contact us by e-mail    Menhirs Libres Association La Petite Métairie 56340 CARNAC click on the button