a bit of tourism

A few weeks ago, I invited Nicola and Théodore to join me on an underground expedition. Les Grottes de Naours date from the third century. That's right, we're talking over 1500 years ago. Hollowed out of the limestone of the Picardy plateau, the underground city consists of 28 galleries and 300 chambers. The hidden refuges, or "muches" in Picard, could shelter 2,600 people and their flocks during times of invasion. Families had their own room, there were public "squares," stables, wells, chimneys and a chapel with three naves, large enough for 400 people to attend mass. Everything they needed in order to live underground for brief periods. In order to avoid detection, the villagers cleverly built the miller's house over one of the chimneys so the smoke coming from the underground city wouldn't seem abnormal. There was a salt cellar, enabling the townsfolk to avoid paying the salt tax.

The complex, a secret until the end of the 19th Century, was used by the British during WWI and as a command post by the German Army in WWII. The museum folk have installed some (rather creepy) wax statues illustrating a British war hospital, a German post, and at the end of the visit, traditional tradesfolk. Despite the odd English translations on signage that did not correspond with the recorded tour in French, I did learn a bit about basketweavers, traveling salesmen/gossips (from which the word for gossipmonger - un colporteur - comes), knifegrinders and lottery ticket saleswomen, who apparently never sold a winning ticket.