Underground France: Fascinating French Caves and Where to Find Them

It’s called la belle France for a reason – the beauty of its towns, villages and countryside is legendary. But it turns out the appeal is much more than skin deep. We explore what lies beneath…

Everyone has heard of France’s Lascaux and Chauvet caves, but few visitors realise that France’s underground wealth rivals that of any country in the world. With more than 100 natural caves and subterranean spaces developed for visiting and exploration, which attract more than six million people a year, France boasts the most extensive underground tourism in Europe and one of the most developed in the world. Cool in the summer and sheltered in the winter, caves have historically served as dwellings, burial places, sacred sites, storage for food and provisions and wine cellars.

France’s caves have also sheltered people fleeing religious persecution, soldiers and Resistance fighters on the run. Nowadays, visitors to France’s caves, troglodyte dwellings and catacombs can view everything from the world’s most famous prehistoric art and traces of ancient spiritual practices to soaring cathedral-like caverns with deep underground lakes and fast-flowing rivers. There are sculptural formations of exquisite variety and complexity, and elaborate underground mazes. Spelunkers speak of this vast underground with awe. But you don’t have to be an adventurer to explore some of France’s most fascinating caves – or their replicas – in some of the country’s most desirable regions.

Provence Profonde

In 1985, while exploring a series of caverns 120ft underwater in a secluded inlet near Marseille, diver Henri Cosquer surfaced in a pitch dark air bell, a terrifying headlamp malfunction keeping him from seeing what was there. It wasn’t until 1991 that divers returned to the site to discover one of Europe’s most important collections of prehistoric cave paintings, older than those at Lascaux and containing extremely rare renderings of sea animals and penguins. The French government deemed the discovery so important they embarked on an urgent multi-year project to catalogue and replicate the Paleolithic treasure trove before rising waters could destroy it. Today, Marseille’s Cosquer Méditerrinée takes visitors on a thrilling 35-minute ride on exploratory vehicles through a perfect replica of the cavern’s chambers, narrating its 33,000-year-old history and decoding some 270 rock paintings.

About 30 miles north of Marseille lies La Grotte de la Sainte-Baume, which is said to have sheltered Mary Magdalene after her vessel, set adrift in exile from Palestine, foundered on the shores of Provence’s wild Camargue. For 30 years until the end of her life, the saint is said to have lived as a recluse in these caves. In the fifth century, the grotto was transformed into a sanctuary where several French kings came to pray and ask for expiation. Today, the cave attracts thousands of pilgrims a year, reached via a lovely two-hour uphill walk through verdant forests, culminating in panoramic views of the massif in a brilliant contrast to the dusky grotto.

If escaping the Provençal heat is more to your liking, the Grottes de Thouzon, about 12 miles east of Avignon in the village of Le Thor, offer cool respite and a dramatic 45-minute tour in French, with an English supplement. You’ll understand why this 60-million-year-old cave the only one of its kind in Provence is called the ‘cave of fairies’ as you follow a fossilised subterranean river past glittering rock formations, impressively massive stalactites and stalagmites, and splendid galleries that resemble a magical kingdom.

Troglodyte Loire

Like a subterranean mirror image of the elegant châteaux and breathtaking landscapes above, beneath the Loire lies another kingdom hewn from the same soft tuffeau limestone used to build the Loire’s famous castles. Quarried in the region since the 10th century, this easily-carved yet resistant rock was used for everything from buildings to fortifications and even roads, leaving deep quarries that merged with the area’s natural caverns. From the Middle Ages onward, Loire natives found these abandoned quarries to be ideal living spaces – or hiding places with temperatures hovering between 12°C and 20°C degrees, depending on season, depth and ventilation.

Though the Loire is by no means the only place in France to have troglodyte dwellings, the soft tuffeau means it is honeycombed with houses, villages, wine cellars and even châteaux. If you’re short on time, the area in and around Saumur is home to a dozen superb troglodyte attractions open to the public. About 18 miles east of Saumur, the Rochemenier Troglodyte Village and Museum is the Loire’s most extensive and complete site, where visitors can freely explore 20 rooms on guided or self-guided tours. This is an excellent introduction to the quotidian troglodyte life of peasants and provides a contrast to the stately underground mansions built by the region’s ancient lords, which you can explore at the Château de Brézé, six miles south of Saumur.

Now a wine estate, the Château de Brézé dates from around 1060 and is still home to descendants of its original nobles. Underneath the Renaissance castle lie two miles of cellars and galleries that date back to the 12th century, when they were believed to have sheltered the landowners and villagers from Viking raids. The château’s guided tour takes visitors through elegantly furnished neo-Gothic rooms to hear the centuries- old history and then taste the estate wines in its grand underground cellars. Château de Brézé is just one among dozens of troglodyte wine cellars.

With a constant temperature and humidity perfect for storing wine, vinophiles can taste fine Loire wines at individual estates, or at the Loire Wine Market in Montsoreau where you can enjoy free visits and tastings in the underground cellars. An underground visit to the Loire is incomplete without a cave stay. There’s a range of listings on Airbnb or, for a splurge, stay at the superb Les Hautes Roches Hotel. Twelve of its luxurious and tasteful prehistoric rooms are hewn into the stone in a series of caves that once hid Catholic monks during France’s vicious Wars of Religion. The rooms now sport windows and stellar views, so even the claustrophobic can enjoy the cave rooms, pool and gastronomic restaurant.

Subterranean Dordogne

France’s go-to region for cave enthusiasts, the Dordogne is where the world-famous Lascaux was discovered in 1940 and where you can tour the outstanding Lascaux IV, the most complete replica of the long-closed cave to date. The region has hundreds of sites, dozens of which are equipped to receive visitors, where you can view Paleolithic cave art up close.

Les-Eyzies-de-Tayac nicknamed the ‘world capital of prehistory’ is the place to go for cave art viewing, starting with Les Combarelles, which was home to Cro-Magnon people around 13,000 years ago and is considered to be among the best in the world for its variety and quality. Though the colours are long vanished, you can easily recognise the outlines of more than 600 horses, cave bears, mammoths, lions and reindeer carved into the stone. Be sure to book well in advance as only 40 people are admitted each day due to the fragility of the cave.

About 10 miles from Les Eyzies, at the Grotte de Rouffignac, a network of underground caverns nearly five miles long, visitors can view 250 drawings of mammoths, bison, ibex and much more. But be aware that many of these caves are not for the claustrophobic, as some measure just over 6ft in height and 3ft wide.

However, claustrophobes and everyone else should beat a path to the cathedral-like interiors of the Gouffre de Padirac near Rocamadour, one of the largest underground chasms in Europe. For sheer drama and breathtaking natural formations, this soaring cave is hard to beat.

Measuring more than 300ft deep and 110ft wide, visitors can view its massive stalactites and stalagmites and deep pools from wooden walkways or adrift over the cave’s otherworldly turquoise waters in a flat-bottomed boat (there are lifts available for those who cannot or do not wish to take the stairs). The cave also hosts candlelit tours to help recreate the awe the very first explorers of the cave must have experienced. As with all the Dordogne caves, be sure to book months in advance.

Underground sites to visit or stay at in France:

• Cosquer Méditerranée
• Grottes de Thouzon
• The Grotto in Sainte-Baume
• Rochemenier Troglodyte Village & Museum
• Château de Brézé
• Lascaux IV
• Dordogne Valley tourism
• Hotel Les Hautes Roches

Resources:

• Grottes de France
• Archaeology Travel

From France Today Magazine