Wednesday 10th October 2012 - Turquant

We headed back to the Loire valley today but planned to call in at a couple of sites shown on the AA map. However, there were no road signs to the dolmen that we were looking for and likewise there were no signs to the 'Pigeonnier Souterrain' (an underground pigeon coup – I kid you not!), so we carried on north.

After two 'Route Barree' (closed roads – the French have loads of them!) and one that should have been closed (we had to squeeze between a ditch and an aggregate lorry after a long wait), we arrived at the Loire past large vineyards of the Saumur region. We drove along to the small village of Turquant famous for its wine, mushrooms, dried apples, tufa stone and troglodytic houses and took the last place in the aire. The tufa stone, a free limestone, is very soft, easy to extract and easy to carve. It makes an excellent building stone and was mined in the 11^th and 12^th centuries from the cliffs along the edge of the river. This left holes that were ideal for habitation and, given that the area was unstable, it provided a safe and free place to live. In fact, it was possible to extract the stone and sell it whilst building your house. Later, as the area became safer, the residents started building houses outside the caves but still leaving the caves as part of their homes. Many of these semi-troglodytic houses still exist and we saw a selection of them as we took a marked walk around the village. The walk also included long views north over the Loire and many wine producers with signs offering tasting and sales. Having seen grapes being mechanically picked earlier in the day, here we saw them being picked by hand and the smell of fermentation hung over the village.

The village caves are also used for the production and storage of wine, the growing of mushrooms (producing 1,000 tonnes a month in 30 kilometres of the ex-quarry tunnels) and for drying apples, a traditional activity now only done for the tourists as the caves are open to the public.

Jane discovered signs for a free WiFi hotspot in a small tourist information room attached to the Mairie (mayor's house) – the first opportunity for WiFi that we had found this holiday. Unfortunately, when I took the computer over there was no sign of the wireless network.

Photos: The Welcome to Turquant stresses the wine producing and just to the right (out of shot) was a stone mason producing fireplaces from the local tufa rock; One of the wine producers based in the cave – wine production was in full swing inside; A semi-troglodytic dwelling; There has been a distinct lack of wildlife in my photographs this holiday – Jane discovered this specimen when we went for a short walk late in the evening. We then nearly stood on a tiny frog hopping along the pavement. The rest of the walk was spent looking down, watching our feet!