Petit Vieux Sou gallery grave, Gallery grave in Brecé, France

Allée couverte du Petit Vieux Sou is a Neolithic gallery grave set on a small plateau in Brecé, Mayenne. It consists of twenty-one upright stone blocks forming a passage around 11 meters long, with a side entrance opening into a chamber once covered by a capstone.

Built and used between roughly 2800 and 2200 BC, the tomb entered the written record around 1907 and underwent unauthorized digging during the Second World War. Later studies clarified its layout and led to its protection as a historic monument.

The side entrance in the middle of the long passage is a strong regional trait of Armorican gallery graves, and you can still see how the builders placed local stone with care to frame the inner chamber. Visitors often stop near the tumulus remains and talk quietly about the potsherds and stone tools once found here, giving the place a sense of a shared local memory.

Wear sturdy shoes and expect uneven ground, as the site is reached on foot through a calm rural setting. Early morning or late afternoon light makes the stone surfaces easier to read, and a simple explanatory panel helps you understand the layout.

More than one thousand objects were recovered around the monument, including polished stone axes, arrowheads, beads, and broken clay vases, even though acid soil destroyed most bone. The nearby rough stone slabs of the cairn contrast with the finer local stone used for the uprights, showing two building traditions side by side.