In the Loire Valley, limestone caves are all the rage for escaping this summer's intense heat (NYT)

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https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/06/opinion/sunday/france-heat-wave-caves.html

I May Be a Troglodyte, but I’m Staying Cool
In the Loire Valley of France, limestone caves are all the rage for escaping this summer’s intense heat.
By Erica Rex
July 6, 2019

VOUVRAY, France — The early-morning procession began during the last week of July 2018. From my kitchen window, I watched as people made their way up the steep incline toward the caves in the cliff. Most were older, except for some younger women with children. A few cars dropped people near the summit.

We were in the middle of a “canicule,” a heat wave that would break records. The village mayor had repurposed one of her family’s caves to be a cooling station where the vulnerable could escape the heat. The hottest day in the normally temperate Loire Valley last year came on Aug. 6 in the town of Chinon, nearly 40 miles southwest of here, where the temperature reached 101 degrees Fahrenheit. Last year ended up being the hottest in France since at least 1900, when modern meteorological measurement began.

A week after the 2018 heat wave began, I received an email from Jérôme and Audrey, a young couple from Olivet, near Orléans, about 80 miles northeast, asking to stay in my holiday rental cottage. They were in search of air-conditioning. Any kind would do.

My air-conditioning is unconventional: I live in a cave, or actually a group of interconnected caves, known in local parlance as a “maison troglodyte.” My troglodyte comprises five caves of varying size, one of which — my “cottage” — I rent out each summer.

In my house, air-conditioning is built in to the geology. Last summer, the inside temperature did not exceed 72 degrees.


The author outside her "maison troglodyte," a complex of repurposed caves where she lives, in Vouvray, France. Pete Kiehart for The New York Times


The complex of homes from repurposed caves in Vouvray, France.


The author with her Swedish Vallhunds, Luna, in the living room/office area of her subterranean home in Vouvray, France.


The cave’s kitchen and dining area.


A wall in the living room area of the repurposed caves where the author lives.