Standing quietly beside Le Mans Cathedral is a monument that makes even the oldest parts of the church seem like relatively recent additions. The Pierre Saint-Julien is a prehistoric standing stone, or menhir, erected during the Neolithic period around five thousand years ago. It originally stood elsewhere in Le Mans before being moved to its present position in 1778 after its original site was destroyed.
In the photo, it’s that lump of rock in the bottom left and I didn’t take a better photo at the time as I thought that it was a weathered statue of limited interest. Some impressive archaeological skills on display there…. Over the centuries the stone has acquired a variety of names and legends, including the Pierre au Lait, the Stone of Blood and Gargantua’s Stone, reflecting the layers of folklore that have accumulated around it.
I think it’s rather lovely that at some stage, someone thought they needed to put this historic stone somewhere, so they popped it in the corner of one of France’s great cathedrals.