About 1.5km northeast of Yverdon, in a wood between the suburb of Clendy and the lakeshore, are standing stones, or menhirs, some five thousand years old. Take bus #1 to Clendy, walk left (north) under the railway bridge, and then head straight along a footpath beside a wood for about 50m. Cut right on paths through the trees, and you’ll emerge into a neatly mown clearing set with the stones.

The Clendy stones were reset in their original positions in 1986, just one of many significant clusters of Neolithic stone circles and dolmens on the north shore of Lac de Neuchâtel – the greatest concentration of them in Switzerland (more are on Lake Geneva and around Sion). The pitted and blotchy Clendy stones – big, but no Stonehenge – form a rough rhomboid shape, with a line extending out from one corner; their purpose is unknown, but may have been connected with worship and/or ley-lines (Yverdon sits at a conjunction of ancient roads). The atmosphere of the place is tangible, but unfortunately today the stones lie beside a main road, shielded by trees from all but the sound of modern traffic.