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A modernized troglodyte dwelling -- complete with sink! |
Until
the early 20th Century, before there was the danger of a tractor
crashing through your roof, many subsistence farmers in the Anjou region lived in caves. Today’s excursion started off with a tour of one of these
underground (troglodyte) villages, where everyone, including the cows, had a
subterranean living space.
Although
you might find something green (or heaven forbid, furry and grey) growing on
your walls, living in caves was quite practical. You would carve your home (or
church or stable) into the soft rock, and then use the excess to construct
chateaus and other structures aboveground, or in the fields as an agent to
counteract the acidity of the soil. If (to borrow an example from our guide)
you had a child on the way and needed to expand your home, you would simply
pull out your pickax and hack away at a wall. The thick rock acts as an
excellent insulator, keeping you and your perishables cool in the summer and
warm in the winter, and is a free and plentiful building material. In the
particular village I visited, people had been quarrying the rock since the
1200s (although I’m not sure if they lived there at that point), and had
constructed an underground chapel during the religious wars of the 16th
Century.
After
the troglodyte village and a wine tasting came the much-rumored underground
restaurant. In a room where some of us had to duck not to hit our heads on the
damp tuffeau, we ate a four-course
dinner of buttery bliss. Pork and
mushrooms were a distinct theme, and the main course was fouace, a pita-like
bread that you slit open and fill with some combination of butter, beans, pork,
and mushrooms. After apple pie for dessert and the traditional coffee, I was
ready to sleep my way home as the bus took us back along the banks of the river
Loire.
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