The French underground

Something I did not know until today:

The United States stands second in the world in the number of caves and grottoes underneath its borders. China is first. France is third. Mammoth Cave in Kentucky is the longest subterranean grotto in the world.

We visited a rather shorter set of caves, Le Grottes Thouzon  just outside Le Thor, for our outing today. I've never been inside the Kentucky caves but this was impressive enough. Calcium carbonate pocked with flint bubbles and stalactites skinnier than your little finger.

Another thing I did not know until today: A cave, speckled as it is with air fissures, is a safe place during an earthquake because those fissures are a space for those movements of tectonic force to lose power.

The Thouzon caves were discovered in 1902 by road workers who had set off an explosion. From then until 1960, anyone could go in, according to our guide, unannounced and unguided. That means there is graffiti, but I couldn't see it. Some animal remains, fossilized bat guano and at least one set of human bones also have been found there; now just tourists.

Also, scorpions (Thanks for waiting until the tour was over to tell us, Mnsr. Le Guide!)

Before the grotto, we wandered in Le Thor for a bit and admired the lovely (from the outside, because we couldn't go it) Notre Dame du Lac, which sits next to the river Sorgue.
Les photos:

 1) Doors of Notre Dame du Lac in Le Thor.

 2) Bridge over the river Sorgue in Le Thor, heading toward Les Grottes de Thouzon.

 3) This is a hunk of flint in Les Grottes de Thouzon. The caves are filled with them, some of them attached to the cave walls only by thin stalactites. A little push and that heavy hunk of flint comes a-flying.

 4) These pools of water have a layer of calcium over them. When a drop hits the surface, the ripple pushes the calcium layer to the edge of the pool,  creating that wavy border. Over time, the border grows up to form a cone, filled with water. Part of a cone is at right in the photo.

 5) Carl in the cave, before the lights went out!