OMG! Living in Caves!

Oh, my God!  I had the most incredible day in the Loire Valley with my friend, Claude (who speaks only French).  We visited several chateaux on the Loire river and went to another little village with yet another chateau.  But this was different!!!

After taking a few pictures, Claude took me on a little uphill hike.  We greeted a man mowing a thin strip of lawn and then greeted his wife, who was standing in front of a large iron gate.  Claude spoke to them, they looked at me, and then nodded.  At that point we were led into the most amazing home I had ever seen in my life: a beautiful home in a grotto, a cave earlier inhabited by trogoladytes!  The separated rooms were in their own little cave and the top of the grotto was open with foliage growing down into the space like a jungle.  They had ponds and patios and even a little pink bistro table!

a grotto patio by the Loire

Well, I didn’t think anything could top that!  But we walked a bit further along the path and looked at more little homes built into the side of the cliff.  Oh, I took loads of photos and if I am going to see you at home, you will surely have to suffer through my slide show.  For the rest of the world I’m keeping it terribly simple.

Yves and his antique telephone

The topper:  at the end of the path, a man was walking toward us.  Claude spoke to him, again he looked at me, and again he nodded.  His home was that of a scholar, filled with books with not much care for the daily cleaning rituals.  All about were antiques and paintings and the collections of an intellectual.  After looking about and taking pictures, he returned to the path with us and showed us a drive-through road.  Yes, a road into the mountainside and out at another site!  Amazing!  There we met a “neighbor” who invited us in to see HIS home, too.  But this time he and his girlfriend brought out the wine, the cheese and the sausage.  Here in France, with an incredible view of the Loire, we were  having a party of five, strangers laughing and sharing stories in French and English, lives intersecting and attachments made…at a home in the caves.  Absolutely incredible…almost surreal.

Albert and Annette

A promise was made:  I won’t reveal the little village.  Privacy is important and to be respected.  Yves, Albert and Annette,  “Merci beaucoup, pour un jour incroiable!  ‘A la prochaine, Christine”

~ by chezchristineo on June 29, 2009.