During our last week in the Loire Valley, we went for a drive to the town of Saumur in the heart of the wine region. In addition to several chateaus and vineyards, the region around Saumur is also known for its troglodytiques which are a bit similar to the cave dwellings in Colorado but a major difference is that many are still actively utilized as homes, farms, wine caves, mushroom caves, restaurants, pubs, and a variety of other uses. There are so many in the region that it was difficult to choose which to visit but we settled on two – a tour of “Caves Louis de Grenelle” and the “Rochemenier Village” which has been preserved since it was last occupied as a working farm.

We began our visit to Saumur with a wine tasting at Caves Louis de Grenelle and, of course, we had to acquire a couple bottles of the tasty local wine. After the tasting, we took a tour of the wineries bottling and fermentation process which occurred entirely within the underground caves. We learned a bit about the different varieties of grapes, how the age of the vines impacts the flavor of the grapes, why the underground caves are the perfect environment for creating fine wines, and how the grapes were harvested and fermented into the wines we sampled including the sparkling wines that this particular winery was recognized for. We also learned that we should never refer to “champagne” as “champagne” unless the grapes that make it come from “Champagne”. If not from Champagne, France, a little bubbly should simply be called “sparkling wine”!!!  In the particular wine cave we visited, there were approximately 4 million bottles of wine on racks in various stages of the wine making process from initial fermentation and “riddling” (the process of turning the bottles to remove the yeast sediments) to labeling and preparation for shipping. The riddling process is now fully automated but, back in the day, we learned that an average “riddler” could turn about 50,000 bottles a day. Another possible career? Or not!!!

After touring the wine caves, we drove approximately 20 minutes to the troglodytique village of Rochemenier which had more than 250 underground rooms excavated out of the rock creating over 40 small farms – some of which are still utilized.  In 1967 the village of Rochemenier was preserved and turned into a historic site. The troglodytiques are “prairie” caves that were created by digging a quarry into the relatively flat farm land and removing the “falun” stone that was (and still is) heavily utilized as a building material for homes and commercial buildings in the nearby cities. Through this process, the land owners/farmers were able to sell the quarry stone that they excavated to create their caves and use their profits from the sale of the stone to purchase their equipment, furnishings, etc. – Brilliant!!!

The caves were not real deep – most of them excavated just a few feet into the sidewalls of the quarries so that they always had light and air. While initially created as inexpensive housing, many of them were quite sizable and comfortable. They had fireplaces, cooking appliances, doors, and windows and were even furnished nicely. As electricity became available, many were even retrofitted with power and lighting and many are still in use today as dwellings and businesses. While touring these unique dwellings, we considered that it may actually be kind of neat to live in one so I had to ask if there were any for sale. We were told that they do occasionally come on the market but it’s quite rare as they are typically passed on to surviving family members so, I guess if we really want one, we’d have to grab the pick axe and start digging and chipping away.