Our final excursion of the 2016 edition of this trip was to the troglodyte cave dwellings that are typical of the region due to the sandstone bedroom. 30kms outside of town, a guide gave us a 30 minute overview of how farming communities had dug their dwellings into the small caves of the area and used the surrounding land to raise animals and grow grapes and other crops. Then the site provided us with a short worksheet to guide us through the other rooms and chambers making them look carefully at farming tools or other artifacts that described how life was up until 1962 when the last "cave dwellers" left the troglodytes.
On the way home, we took a quick detour to step inside our last Romanesque cathedral fo the tour, Notre-Dame de Cunault. It's an enormous and beautiful cathedral in the town square of the smallest and quaintest French village. What's great about this church is that it seems to be manned by no one, and we're always the only visitors inside. It was a very nice way to end our sight-seeing in the Loire Valley.
As I write this, the students (and teachers) are all at home beginning to say their goodbyes and furiously trying to figure out how to jam everything into their suitcases while staying under the weight limit!
As they say in France, à demain!
On the way home, we took a quick detour to step inside our last Romanesque cathedral fo the tour, Notre-Dame de Cunault. It's an enormous and beautiful cathedral in the town square of the smallest and quaintest French village. What's great about this church is that it seems to be manned by no one, and we're always the only visitors inside. It was a very nice way to end our sight-seeing in the Loire Valley.
As I write this, the students (and teachers) are all at home beginning to say their goodbyes and furiously trying to figure out how to jam everything into their suitcases while staying under the weight limit!
As they say in France, à demain!