Cave / Rocks Sights in La Loire — 3 of Our Favourites

Between Saumur and Chinon, on the hillside along the Loire River, you will find Le Saut aux Loups. It was favoured in prehistoric times by men and wolves who found a home here. Since the Middle Ages, there have been limestone quarries in the hillside for the stone required to build the châteaux the region is so famous for. The quarrymen also built the troglodyte houses as lodgings and these have been preserved in their original state here at Le Saut aux Loups. The caves are now home to extensive mushroom production lines and here you can visit their 800 metres of underground galleries before trying the speciality of the house, galipettes, delicious stuffed mushrooms, in their restaurant.

Owned by the Filliatreau family, this grand manor is part troglodyte cave. Once the dwelling of lords, it has a fine chapel and extensive vineyards producing some of the best Saumur-Champigny wines in the area.

The Cave des Roches at Bourré is the only example in the world of the complete production of different varieties of mushroom at 50 metres underground. The farm covers 120 kilometres of galleries on seven levels. The old-fashioned cultivation methods, in a natural atmosphere at 13°C, produce a mushroom unrivalled in terms of flavour, with a guaranteed vitamin content. Total production amounts to over 100 tonnes of mushrooms per year, entirely hand-picked. The Cave des Roches offers a varied selection (pied bleu, shitake, oyster, horse, old-fashioned button mushrooms). It is responsible for 40% of the world's pied bleu mushroom production, principally destined either for the best starred restaurants in France or exported around the world.