Who says the cavemen are gone?

Although I still haven't organized and edited the photos from my recent trip to France, I wanted to share this today. Driving through the Loire valley on our way to visit the glorious Château de Chenonceau, I was fascinated by doors and windows on cliff walls. We were to spend the bulk of our day touring the opulent summer home of kings, and yet I found myself unable to forget what seemed to be so very primitive. Until then, I would have thought I was viewing basically useless cliffs. Lovely to look at and capture in photos, yes, but merely part of the geological history of France. Still, I couldn't stop thinking about doors and windows in the side of an inhabitable cliff. I had to look into this.

What I found was amazing to me, that there are entire homes carved into these cliff walls. And these are not your typical cavemen's homes! Windows, balconies, plumbing, heat, fully operating kitchens, multiple rooms -- how fabulous! These are known as "troglodyte" homes. Here's a link to an interesting video by the Smithsonian on one of these homes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSbQ3t-j41Y

The ingenuity of our earliest ancestors -- updated and celebrated!