I haven’t talked about my trip to France a lot, so today’s blog post is about one location that I visited in France, La Grotte de Limousis. I find caves and geology interesting, so when I learned of a cave where there are stalagmites and stalactites, I had to go.

 

In case you didn’t know, stalagmites go up, and stalactites go down. The drive went up grassy hills and was a bit bumpy. When I arrived, I stretched my legs and went to the desk. There were a lot of rocks that you could buy, most of them existed in the caves where the shop was. The woman at the desk said that the tour would start in a few minutes, and that the caves were up the hill. As I climbed, my legs were plotting against me for revenge. They had been still for a long time, then forced to start walking quickly up a hill. When I got to the caves, my legs were awake, and other people and the guide had arrived too. The guide led all of us through the cave entrance, and the tour began.

 
I nearly jumped out of my skin, there were big spiders at the entrance, they looked like monsters with their disproportionately large limbs. I kept one eye on them is I went through, making sure that they wouldn’t decide I was a snack and try to eat me. I had forgotten that they fermented wine in the first cave, so my nose panicked with the smell and cold air and made me feel like I was suffocating. After my brain stopped the alarm, I looked around, more spiders, wine, and a creepy cave. While the guide talked about the wine, I mentally weighed the pros and cons of being in the cave. I decided to stay (regardless of the eerie spiders).

 

 

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After entering the next cave, I remembered a Pokémon game that I have. One location called Meteor Falls looked a lot like the caves I was in, maybe I would find dragon Pokémon in the caves! They both had perfectly reflective water, stalagmites, stalactites, pale rocks, and felt strange to be in. I kept an eye out for Pokémon while I walked through the caves, just in case.

 
The guide that mentioned ancient bears used to live in the caves. There were claw marks, and bones in displays along the path from the bears. As we went through the caverns, I wondered when I would get to see the pools of water. We entered the next cavern, and I got my wish, the water pools were there, stalagmites were sticking out of the water. It looked straight out of my game; the water reflected so well that it reminded me of another Pokémon game. In that game there was a place called the distortion world where everything was upside down or in the wrong place (or both). The water looked so much like an entrance to the distortion world that I wanted to jump in to check.

 

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The last cave showed the most iconic of the rock structures, with lights showing each one. The caves were fascinating to walk through, and I will go again. You should go if you are in France or are going to France on vacation. If you like Pokémon, you will be freaked out as you walk through.

On the way out, I got two rock specimens that are from the caves. One of them was Gypsum, a clear mineral that looks a lot like glass. I inspected the rocks as I went back to the house. Until the next post!