Cave in the Loire Valley

Troglodytes in the Loire Valley by Bernard Tobie, president of the “Carrefour Anjour Touraine Poitou”

An important heritage:

A universal phenomenon: wherever geology has permitted, man has exploited nature to hollow out a home. These dwellings can be found on every continent, and even today it is estimated that in China several million people still live in cave dwellings. In Europe, the biggest number of sites can be found in Spain and France, but only a few people live permanently in these dwellings: they seem to belong in the past, even though there is an increased interest in them at present.

In the Loire Valley, and especially in Anjou, the situation is particularly interesting for two reasons:

Firstly, the density: underneath this region is a maze of passages and holes which have been created over the centuries by the extraction of two soft, friable, easily-worked limestone rocks:
- le tuffeau (tufa): a white stone which has been used to build churches and castles, and both the grandest and simplest of houses in the Loire Valley. For centuries it was dug out from underground quarries and exported along the Loire and its tributaries.
- le falun : a limestone rich in shells, about 12 million years old, found in a more restricted geographical area (mostly around Doué la Fontaine) and which is less useful as a building material. The way in which it is extracted has left impressive ogival underground quarries.

Secondly, the variety of forms: the existence of a plain cut into by river valleys, bordered with an escarpment which is often very steep means that within this region there is a concentration of the main types of cave dwellings. Troglodyte cave architecture is essentially subtraction: matter is extracted to create the forms (holes are made in solid matter, unlike architecture on the surface.
- Along the escarpment beside the Loire we can see horizontal cave dwellings where the rock face has been excavated horizontally. On the plain there are vertical caves, made by digging the ground. Sometimes the two methods are combined.
  An architecture which uses the natural rock formations can also be found. There are very few natural caves, or shelters made under rocks, but there are a number of semi-troglodyte dwellings: houses backing on to the rock face.
- There is also a wealth of underground refuges in our region: some of them were hollowed out for this reason in times of trouble, for example during the 100 Years War or the Wars of Religion…. They show an ingenious underground defence system with a corridor leading in to several chambers, with a whole series of obstacles designed to impede any would-be intruders, such as rudimentary wooden doors, trap wells, and very narrow passages which are difficult to crawl along. Sometimes quarries were adapted and used as refuges. There is a good example of this at Doué la Fontaine, where a falun quarry used for extracting sarcophagi from the 6th to the 9th century became a refuge at the time of the Norman invasions.

In the old days, there were certain villages where almost all the dwellings were cave dwellings and on the surface there was little indication of any human presence. This kind of settlement is often associated with poverty. It is true that these settlements were inhabited for centuries by people of modest means: peasants, quarrymen, Loire boatmen and so on, but there are also lordly cave dwellings, large pigeon houses, a privilege restricted to the nobility, religious edifices and underground chapels.

All this is evidence of a truly underground society whose way of life was governed by the rock and who in turn mastered the rock: they were well adapted to the unavoidably dark and damp conditions and achieved harmony between working on the surface and living underground.

A Period of Neglect

When the troglodyte way of life could no longer fulfil the demand for comfort or the need to be economically viable, these dwellings were gradually abandoned during the last century. Left without maintenance, they deteriorated. The few people who continued to occupy them only did so because of their age (“I’ve always lived here”) or because they were too poor to move out (hence the expression “troglos clodos” meaning “troglodyte tramps” , and some areas were taken over by “down and outs”). This explains the attitude of local people, which is often negative.

A Renewal of Interest

The first new economic uses of the quarries:
- In the middle of the 19th century, caves were used for wine: some big companies and numerous small wine producers in the region started to make wine in huge galleries.
- At the end of the 19th century, mushroom caves in this region were responsible for a large proportion of the total mushroom production. At present, for economic reasons, the mushroom producers are leaving the caves and moving the production into buildings on the surface.
The reopening of quarries: all the quarries had been closed, but the restoration of historical monuments and traditional houses in the Loire Valley has led to the reopening of some quarries. One quarry is still extracting stone underground, but is now using more modern methods.
Tourism is the main factor in saving this heritage and making it into a positive economic force for the region:
- At Doué la Fontaine, former falun quarries have been transformed into a zoo: one of the most popular tourist attractions in Anjou.
- Former farms and former villages have been made into museums.
- Certain troglodyte sites have taken on a new life as restaurants offering traditional local food such as the “fouaces” (a sort of unleavened bread). Others have become art galleries: the setting and the dim light combine well with the imagination of painters, sculptors and other craftsmen.

More recently, newcomers have moved into the rock:
- In the Saumur region, the first newcomers arrived in the 1970s, and they were joined by local enthusiasts who had never lost interest in this phenomenon. This aroused the curiosity of the local population, who were only too happy to find purchasers for their cave dwellings. In the Touraine region the abandonment of cave dwellings was less significant, especially along the Loire, and many were used as second homes.
- This way of living is becoming fashionable, combining as it does the preoccupations and values of present-day society: ecology, nature, energy-efficiency, beauty, authenticity and so on. This is linked with the use of new materials and new heating and ventilation techniques. These new cave dwellings have helped to revolutionise their image. The interest of the local population has been reawakened and people want to make the most of their heritage. Local groups lend support and encouragement to projects, especially for accommodation. There is a big demand from tourists, but the supply is not yet adequate either in terms of quantity or quality.

The cave dwelling heritage is a major part of the “living, evolving cultural landscape” for which our region has been classed as a World Heritage Site. For us, the cave dwellings are not a quaint reminder of the past. We think they have a future, because they represent a dwelling-place which is at one with the landscape, where modern man can “recharge his batteries” and find the haven of rest and tranquillity which he so much needs. Living in a cave dwelling can be an escape from the outside world: sheltered from heat-waves and frosts alike, plenty of cave dwellers will tell you that they would much rather “live in a warren than in a hutch”.