Grottes Pétrifiantes de Savonnières

The two caves of Savonnières ( Grottes de Savonnières ) are located in the French community Savonnières directly to the RD 47, 15 km west of Tours in France, one kilometer from the Villandry Castle.

History

Bernard Palissy had in 1547 discovered the first cave and the cave explorers M. Gilles came in 1947 on the second. She was already very much known earlier, which is an inscription with the year 1203. In addition, Gallo- Roman tombs were found. Here the typical for the region tufa was mined early in the 16th century and thereby cut the visible today subterranean stream.

Tourist recovery

Since 1966, the Caves of Savonnières show caves. By appropriate lighting comes out of the watercourse, the sinter cascades and headboards and stalactites. The highly calcareous water is used to gradually cover with a layer of lime matrices. The figures thus obtained and based on lithographic templates from the 19th century relief panels of travertine available in the souvenir shop before the cave for purchase.

The resulting forms naturally rich today as an attraction obviously not enough. So at prominent places of the cave system dinosaur figures were placed. Final point of the tour is a kind of cave bar in the largest room, where a glass of local rosé is proffered.