Le Mystère des Faluns

Useful Information

Location:	Les Perrières, 7 Rue d'Anjou, 49700 Doué-la-Fontaine. (47.1906131, -0.2611858)
Open:	07-FEB to 14-JUN Tue-Sun, Hol 10-12:30, 14-18. 15-JUN to 13-SEP daily 10-19. 14-SEP to 01-NOV Tue-Sun, Hol 10-12:30, 14-18. [2026]
Fee:	Adults EUR 8.50, Children (0-12) EUR 6, Students EUR 7.50, Disabled EUR 7.50. Groups (20+): Adults EUR 7.50, School Pupils EUR 4.50. [2026]
Classification:	Cave House
Light:	Electric Light
Dimension:	T=12 °C.
Guided tours:	D=1 h. Self guided tours possible.
Photography:	not allowed
Accessibility:	no
Bibliography:
Address:	Le Mystère des Faluns, Les Perrières, 7 Rue d'Anjou, 49700 Doué-la-Fontaine, Tel: +33-241-59-71-29.
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

18th and 19th century	rock quarried for buildings.
1980s	opened to the public.

Description

Le Mystère des Faluns (The Mystery of the Faluns) is one of several rock quarries at this road, it seems the rock here was quite suitable for buildings. That’s the reason why the road is named Rue des Perrieres and the part of city simply Les Perrières (The Quarries). Those quarries were abandoned, they were used as mushroom farms, then as dwellings. Several have been opened for the public in the last decades, this one in the 1980s. The passages are quite spectacular, between 15 and 20 m high with a strange trapezoid cross-section.

The quarries are visited self-guided, and they actually resemble a sort of multimedia exhibition. The artistic and poetic trail was created by the Lucie Lom agency, with light projections which dance across the falun walls. Impressive soundscapes tell the story of the place and the people who lived there.

The rock here is the same as in all other troglodytic sites in the area, a layer of white limestone which is locally called falun. It was deposited between 16 bis 3,5 Ma ago during the Miocene by the Faluns Sea. The Atlantic Ocean expanded and covered the regions of Brittany, Anjou, Touraine and Blésois with a shallow sea. It was in average only 25 m deep and part of the continental shelf. The rocks which were deposited are very rich in fossil remains like bryozoa, molluscs, and fish such as sharks and rays. More extraordinary are fossils of reptiles, terrestrial and marine mammals, birds, and wood.