1 Bdrm Apt, Furnished, Full Bar, Utilities Paid, Retro Architecture, Corpses Included, $1.8 Million OBO

For Sale: One Megalithic Tomb (If Buyer Passes Muster)

from AFP

BAGNEUX, France - Pascal Normand has decided to sell his 5,000-year-old megalithic tomb, but he is being very choosy about who gets it.

"I've got to feel that the buyer has a real passion for the monument, even if he decides not to open it to the public," Normand said about his dolmen - a Neolithic tomb consisting of two or more upright stones with a capstone - in Bagneux, western France.

No passion, no sale, he says.

The dolmen, at 75 feet, is the longest in France, Normand says, adding that it was classified as a historic monument in the 19th century.

Normand says he is letting go of the dolmen reluctantly after having inherited it seven years ago. To sweeten the deal, he is throwing in a bar and two apartments on the half-acre plot, asking $1.8 million for the lot. His great-grandfather bought the land and installed the bar.

He shows visitors round the dolmen himself, and has an agreement with the state to open it at least 45 days a year, but the crowds are not rushing in. During the best years, some 9,000 visitors dropped by. Now, that is down to 3,000 a year.

"Megaliths don't interest anybody any more in France," Normand said.

He is advertising the dolmen on the Internet, and says that he has already fielded calls from abroad.

But so far none have satisfied him.