Our friend from church, Leslie, invited us to the Choranche caves (an hour south of Grenoble) for a trip organized by the city of St Martin d'Heres. The boys were in the middle of a prehistorical phase then, they loved to read about dinosaurs and cave men.
William and Josh enjoyed riding the giant bus there.
We had a picnic at the site.
Leslie and one of her 4 sons (Adam) shared lunch with us
We saw prehistorical remains (70 000 years old animal remains, and tools) from the region. The boys were a little disappointed we didn't see cave men!
and learned how the cave was formed
the cave is filled with amazingly long and thin needle-like stalactites. They grow about 10cm every 100years. The longest one in the cave is about 300cm.
The cave was never inhabited, the temperature inside is constant ~10C winter and summer. We expected to see bats but the cave is pretty much empty of life (which is why it is so well preserved).
The cave is used by the CNRS for various research including the preservation of these really old amphibious salamanders called Protee. They are not native from these caves but were brought here from Slovenia. They're one of the oldest species alive on the planet. Apparently they already existed in the Dinosaur era.
Josh's starlet moves
and again
and William's skepticism
After the visit the boys had a snack and we took the bus back to St Martin d'Heres. The view on the Vercors mountain was absolutely beautiful.
We ended the day playing at the playground near Leslie's apartment.
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