Les pierres Jaumâtres

The Pierres Jaumâtres are a granite chaos near the summit of Mont Barlot, in the commune of Toulx-Sainte-Croix, in the Creuse. The site, at about 590 metres' altitude, has been a listed natural site since 1927. It consists of enormous piled granite blocks, uncovered by erosion of the cold Quaternary period, which carried away the weathered rock and left the more resistant parts in place.

The astonishing shapes of these rocks have fed many legends. Some stones bear evocative names, such as the Bascule, the Pains de Sucre or the Devil's Cradle. In the early nineteenth century, Jean-François Barailon argued that Gaulish druids had sculpted these blocks for rites, a thesis that Prosper Mérimée and Pierre de Cessac later refuted. George Sand mentions the place as "Pierres Jomâtres" in her novel Jeanne, published in 1844.

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