Margot and her caves, a story about a strange treasure
And also
The tops
Margot’s cave
Mad Margot!
Caves have lots of legends, generally, but here, more than anywhere else!
Some pagan rites used to take place. People did them on purpose, because those rites helped them to find the fairy’s treasure.
A fairy? Sure! Here she comes, look: let me introduce Margot…
Margot lived in the cave in the beginning of the 17th century. She was a beggar.
A poor woman who lived here like a recluse.
Sometimes she went out of the caves with, in her arms, a big black hen. People said she was a witch...
Besides, one night, a big racket with a stinking smell came out from the caves. Ah, Margot had just met the Devil himself…
Now the caves were a witches’ Sabbath place!
People decided to wall up her in her bloody caves. But one day, she disappeared!
They didn’t find nor her skeleton, neither her bones! The mad witch simply faded into the background...
Margot’s treasure
For want of witch, the tradition says Margot was in fact a fairy who held a big treasure.
A treasure people could get in exchange of a black hen, at nightfall! On condition the person had a pure and irreproachable soul, of course…
So plenty of credulous people came and lost themselves at night in the caves: they never found the exit!
Archaeologists made excavations in the 19th century and found... bones.
In 1851, a real treasure was discovered: a small box with 350 coins inside, from the reign of Charles VII and duke Jean V of Brittany…
The book Les Recherches historiques sur Aubigné et Verneil by Fortuné Legeay says people came to find the treasure, but also to make pagan rituals.
So, in order to stop that, bishop from Le Mans raised a wall at the entrance of the caves. People came, destroyed the wall and the rites went on...