The Bourré cliffs
It’s an impressive figure: 580 km of galleries in the belly of the Bourré cliffs, a small valley near Montrichard in the south of the Loir-et-Cher region. But it’s not quite as impressive as what visitors can see outside the old tuffeau stone quarries (formerly known as “perrières”).
Stone of light, or pierre des rois (stone of kings), marks the Loire Valley with its mineral stamp. Châteaux, large and small, churches, abbeys, dwellings, perimeter walls, bridges, monuments and more. For many centuries, every building that rose from the ground was made of this stone, which came from the underground tunnels dug by quarrymen, formerly known as “perriers”.

The Cave des Roches
This is the most notable example, since an underground city preserves intact the surface façades that are subject to erosion. The Delalande family has 120 km of galleries, and the first traces of extraction date back to the 11th century, ending in 1920 due to rising prices.
The famous “Bourré” stone, the most famous and noble tuffeau stone, comes from marine sedimentation (organisms deposited on the seabed) and rock fragments carried by rivers in the form of alluvium. These sediments have whitened and hardened over time: in the underground galleries, 90 million years of history await you!