France *

France has had little mention in connection with the Atlantis mystery except by Marcel Mestadgh who was convinced that France was the centre of an ancient civilisation with its capital in the city of Sens. The late Philip Coppens discussed Mestdagh’s theories in two of his books^[0240][1275], which in turn led to a two-part essay^(f)(g) by Bruce Jeffries-Fox.

However, in the early years of the 20th century Jean-Léopold Courcelle-Seneuil,  a French writer, is reported to have proposed that the Auvergne region of Central France had been associated with Atlantis.

Another mysterious feature of ancient France is centred on the town of Alaise from which it was discovered that 24 radial ley lines emanated. These were identified by Xavier Guichard (1870-1947) a former Parisian police chief^(e). In 1936, he self-published the heavily illustrated Eleusis Alesia ^[1699] outlining his research in great detail. John Sase, in his Curious Alignments ^[1589], confirmed Guichard’s findings.

However, in the 1990s Emile Mourey developed a theory that saw the Atlantean ‘Empire’ covering most of western Europe and all of North Africa as far east as Egypt. He places its capital at what is now the village of Gergovie^(b) in the départment of Puy-de-Dôme. This Atlantis, according to Mourey, was not destroyed but after 509 BC was known as Gaul!

Brittany, in northwestern France, is the centre of some of the most spectacular megalithic monuments in Europe. From the middle of the 20^th century onwards several researchers have striven to link Atlantis with these remarkable structures. In this connection the work of Deruelle, Tristan, Helmut Tributsch and  Hank Harrison must be mentioned. French ethnologist Jean-Michel Hermans has recently joined the ranks of these supporters of a megalithic Atlantis.

In February 2019, a report in the Smithsonian Magazine told us that “Bettina Schulz Paulsson, an archaeologist at the University of Gothenburg, reexamined some 2,410 radiocarbon dating results that have been assigned to Europe’s megaliths and put them through Bayesian statistical analysis. Based on the picture the data present, Schulz Paulsson believes that the megaliths were first constructed by dwellers of northwest France during the second half of the fifth millennium BC.”^(h) Mike Parker Pearson, the leading Stonehenge expert, has endorsed this idea of a French origin for megalith building⁽ⁱ⁾ as has Aubrey Burl and more recently Robert Hensey ^[1766.6].

However, a note of caution has been expressed by Walter Willems in Der Spiegel, who has rightly pointed out that “there also exist megalithic structures in North Africa, as in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia  and Morocco. These have hardly been dated up to now and were not taken into account in the analysis.”^(j) I should add that similar monuments are to be found in the Caucasus, Jordan and Korea in great numbers and at many other locations around the globe, which should be included in a broader study.

Additionally, the ever-modest Dean Clarke has written^(a) of a series of extensive prehistoric floods in France that he links with the flooding of Atlantis.

Timagenus, the Greek historian, noted that there were French tribes who claimed that Atlantis had been the home of their ancestors.

Returning to the matter of Atlantis, we find that Didier Coilhac has published an extensive paper in which he claims that statuary and paintings at the Palace of Versailles held encoded details of the story of Atlantis!^(k) He has applied his theory to a number of other historical buildings and monuments^(l).

^(a) http://atlantisite.com/francetheory.htm  (link broken) *

^(b) https://www.agoravox.fr/tribune-libre/article/l-epopee-des-atlantes -capitale-125152

^(d) http://www.ancient-wisdom.com/xavierguichard.htm

^(e) https://web.archive.org/web/20171005192548/https://www.jiroolcott.com/blog/archives/7

^(f) Atlantis in France 1 (archive.org)

^(g) Atlantis in France 2 (archive.org)

^(h) https://www.smithsonianmag.com/articles/europe-megalithic-monuments-france-sea-routes-mediterranean-180971467/

⁽ⁱ⁾ Stonehenge, other ancient rock structures may trace their origins to monuments like this | Request PDF (researchgate.net)

^(j) https://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/mensch/archaeologie-megalith-kultur-entstand-in-frankreich-a-1252989.html

^(k) The Palace of Versailles codes Atlantis. (didiercoilhac.com) (French) (link broken)  

^(l) Home – Didier Coilhac (French) (link broken)