Trôo, la grotte pétrifiante et le puits qui parle

Trôo

Trôo is a vertical village: three storeys of houses hewn from the tuffeau, linked by cut stairways, beneath a 12th-century collegiate church and a feudal mound overlooking the whole Loir valley. At the foot of the hillside opens the petrifying grotto, 'the oldest tourist site in the village': a lime-laden spring has trickled here for centuries over basins and over the remains of the Saint-Gabriel chapel, gradually coating everything in a stone crust — one can see here what three centuries of water have done to the tuffeau, stalactites and petrified objects included. At the top of the village, another famous curiosity: the 'talking well', 45 metres deep, probably contemporary with the building of the collegiate church in the 12th century. Its echo, strikingly clear, repeats visitors' words; local tradition has long made sport of it and tells that an overly talkative woman is said to have been locked in it by the devil — she is said to be the one who answers from the bottom of the well. The Saint-Martin collegiate church, a listed historic monument, built within the former castle enclosure of the counts of Vendôme, watches over this maze of cellars, 'caforts' (refuge cellars) and lanes; from the top of the mound, the view takes in the whole valley. Once a stopping point for pilgrims and the lepers of the Sainte-Catherine leprosarium, Trôo is best discovered on foot, troglodyte lamp in hand, between the stone that grows and the well that answers.

Getting there : Loir valley, D917 between Montoire-sur-le-Loir and La Chartre. Petrifying grotto at the foot of the hillside, talking well and collegiate church at the top of the village; the 'À flanc de coteau' trail (2.4 km, 1hr), audio guide via the Wivisites app. Coordinates of the village (approach point).

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

Ambient sound