Le Caveau


Useful Information

Location: Doué la Fontaine
Open: APR to SEP daily lunch (12:30) and dinner (19:30).
OCT to MAR Fri, Sat, Sun lunch (12:30).
[2007]
Fee: Menu between EUR 14 and 21. [2007]
Classification: SubterraneaCave House
Light: LightIncandescent Electric Light System
Dimension:
Guided tours:
Photography:
Accessibility:
Bibliography:
Address: Le Caveau, 4 bis place du champ de foire, 49700 Doué la Fontaine, Tel: +33-241-599828, Fax: +33-241-598579. E-mail: contact
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

12th century cellar started.

Description

The restaurant Le Caveau (the vault) is located in the centre of the city Doué la Fontaine. From the place du Champs de Foire only the small entrance is visible, as most of the restaurant is underground. A 50 m long passage leads to a 260m² big main room with the restaurant, which seats 100 persons.

The specialties of the restaurant are local specialties which are connected with the underground. Galipettes are large mushrooms, which grow in cellars similar to this one. The local unleavened bread is called fouaces, and is served with various dishes. This typical meal of the "troglodytes" (cave dwellers) is baked in wood fired ovens inside the restaurant. To determine the right temperature of this simple oven, the cook throws small pieces of dough inside. The right temperature causes the dough to swell, and that is the moment when the ash and coal of the woodfire is removed and the bread baked. François Rabelais praises the fouace or fouée in his Gargantua. He describes how it is first flat and then starts to spread and breathe in the oven.