THE TROGLODYTE VILLAGES AROUND SAUMUR
Anjou’s soft tuffeau stone encouraged troglodyte dwellings. The region thus has many underground sites to visit: the underground fortress of Brézé, cellars and extraction galleries, but also farms and even whole villages carved into the rock.
20 kilometres from Camping Paradis Les Nobis, the Rochemenier museum-village is a troglodyte ensemble of farms, a communal hall and a chapel. You discover daily life through a documented underground trail, period objects and furniture. Augmented-reality features, virtual tours of troglodyte sites around the world, and projected shadow effects bring the site up to date. Rochemenier village also hosts an art installation on troglodyte living: the Troglosphère.
À Dénezé-sous-Doué, les maisons troglodytiques des Forges sont également ouvertes à la visite. On y découvre, à travers un parcours libre d’une heure environ, le quotidien des paysans du 197 siècle. Cet ensemble troglodyte est situé à moins de 20 km de votre camping.
Les troglodytes
2 TROGLODYTE SITES NOT TO BE MISSED!
11 km from Montreuil-Bellay, in Doué-en-Anjou, the Troglodyte et Sarcophage site is listed as a Historic Monument: this unusual place, a former sarcophagus quarry, is remarkably complete and ideal for discovering the many uses of troglodyte sites in Anjou over 1,500 years. Still in Doué-en-Anjou, a few kilometres from Camping Les Nobis, the Troglos de la Sablière tell you more about falun extraction and the underground shelters of the region. You will also find a troglodyte dwelling and a fossil exhibition.
The Vallée des Goupillières is a little farther from Montreuil-Bellay: set in Azay-le-Rideau, about an hour’s drive away, it can be visited after the château, for example. The 2-hectare site is ideal for a historic, countryside walk with the family. You wander freely among troglodyte farms, stables, wells, bread ovens and silos carved into the rock. A fun trail for children lets them explore at their own pace. The site also includes a medieval kitchen garden and farm animals.
UN SITE TROGLODYTE SOUTERRAIN ORIGINAL
An original underground site, Pierre et Lumière is in Saint-Hilaire-Saint-Florent, 20 kilometres from Montreuil-Bellay. A miniature park nestled in the rock, Pierre-et-Lumière houses sculptures of around twenty sites in the region, villages or monuments. A tribute to the builder, the site is made magical by an artistic lighting of the works.
Troglodyte sites are one of the faces of Anjou and the Loire Valley. Some of these unusual places are home to restaurants serving local specialities: near your Camping Paradis Les Nobis, discover for example the pommes tapées troglos in Turquant, the caves of Marson where you can taste fouées, or Les Cathédrales de la Saulaie, set in a former falun quarry in Doué-en-Anjou.
Photo credits: Mathieu GÉNON for AnjouTourisme
THE TROGLODYTE VILLAGES OF THE LOIRE VALLEY
During your stay at the campsite in Saumur, set out to discover the troglodyte villages of the Loire Valley. A thousand kilometres of underground galleries make the Saumur area France’s greatest concentration of troglodyte sites.
Among the most impressive are:
The mushroom museum in Saint-Hilaire-Saint-Florent introduces you to the amazing world of wild and cultivated mushrooms. And also the Château de Brézé: a château beneath a château, 16 km from the campsite; the Doué-la-Fontaine troglodyte site 12 km from your holiday base, the most complete and unusual; and the Perrières troglodyte caves…
If you are looking for a holiday rental near the troglodyte villages of the Saumur area, contact the 4-star camping**** Les Nobis on 02 41 52 33 66 to check availability.
