Troglodytes

An interesting place that we were keen to introduce to Becky, Gerry and Emélie is the Troglodyte Village in Rochemenier.  Troglodytes are cave dwellers and there are a number of these sites in France.  Some of the North American First Nations also relied on caves for shelter.  Since we visited this exact place two years ago, you may want to check out our posting from that blog:

http://france-encore.blogspot.fr/2010/05/troglodyte-village-rochemenier-may-22.html

The caves as seen today, from a hill.  These Troglodytes dug a large central hole (selling the soil) and then created caves from the centre of that first dugout. 

You'd think a cave wouldn't be all that comfortable, but it had a lot of amenities.  Keeping warm and cool, depending on the season, seemed to be quite easy for them.

Emélie, keeping an eye out for company that might be dropping in.

Karl is interested in the stove and the warming oven.

Emélie is stirring up some supper.

These two engineers spent a lot of time looking at all the tools and figuring how some things could have been improved.  Too bad they weren't around back then...

Karl working like a horse...

and Emélie working like a mule!

Time for a rest, right Becky & Emélie?

Tools.  Amazing what they could accomplish with not a single electrical socket in sight!  This was all muscle power and hard labour.  And a lot of ingenuity!

Surely some of the work was more pleasurable - like squeezing some grapes to make wine!

After all, the community will be gathering in the common room to sing songs, tell tales, and enjoy some camaraderie.

Emélie loved the farm animals of the time: chickens, roosters, ducks, geese, rabbits, lambs, and turkeys.