From the Jardin aux Moines towards the Pertuis Néanti

Park to the north-east of the D141p junction.

(S/E) Cross the road carefully and head west. After about a hundred metres, on the left, you’ll find the Tumulus of the Jardin aux Moines. The forest track curves slightly to the left. When a path crosses it, turn right. At the fork in the path, take the one furthest to the left.

(1) Take a short detour to the left towards Dr Guérin’s tomb (off the main route).
Carry on and take the first path on the right. At the end of this, turn right again and you’ll reach a T-junction.

(2) Turn right and follow the path round a right-hand bend and a wide left-hand bend. At the junction, take the path on the left. Cross the Ruisseau de la Maladrène and carry on straight ahead.

(3) Veer to the right and head uphill. Ignore a path on the left and, at the junction twenty metres further on, carry straight on.

(4) At the crossroads before the main road, turn left to join the D141, which you follow to the left for fifty metres. Take the path on the right, which leads onto a small road.

(5) Turn left. Continue down the first street on the left and enter Le Pertui Néanti. Follow this road until it joins another road after bending to the right.

(6) Turn right, then right again 50 metres further on. After 50 metres, turn left onto the path, heading due south. At a Fork in the road, turn right onto the^GRP® Tour de Brocéliande. In front of the Roc Fermu farm, turn right.

(7) Follow the path to the left. At the end of the path, turn right and immediately take the left-hand branch. Continue straight on until you reach the departmental road. The car park where you started is 100 metres to the right (S/E).

We are in the far western part of the Paimpont Forest, also known as the Forest of Brocéliande. The Val sans Retour lies to the south and the Baranton Fountain to the north-east. This is the heart of a land of legends, and the legend of the Jardin aux Moines (below) is one of them.

The Jardin aux Moines, also known as the Jardin des Tombes, is a tumulus made up of 27 blocks of red schist and quartz; it is trapezoidal in shape. It is 25 metres long and between 5 and 6 metres wide.
Although situated in the Forest of Paimpont, the site has not been linked to Arthurian legend in the same way as many other megalithic sites. Legend has it that, in days gone by, the local lords and monks spent their time feasting. One day, Saint Méen caught them on the moor and ordered them to confess their sins and put an end to their orgies, but they paid no heed. Divine punishment was not long in coming; they were immediately turned to stone at the very spot where they had sinned.

Dr Alphonse Guérin: his tomb is situated in a part of the moor known as ‘the cherry tree moor’, as he was deeply fond of this spot. In accordance with his wishes, he was therefore buried there alongside his wife. There are no dates on his section of the tomb, as she did not wish her age to be known, even at the time of her death.
Alphonse Guérin was born in Ploërmel in 1816 and died in Paris in 1895. He qualified as a doctor of medicine in 1850 after writing a thesis on purulent infection. He is famous for having invented the cotton wool dressing.