Difficulty: Summiteer (Level 3)
Millions in France are grappling with scorching heat, but Jean-Luc Eclercy-Deterpigny is not worried. His living room, set inside a former quarry, offers a refreshing refuge.
“It feels like stepping inside a fridge,” said the 57-year-old former Parisian. He moved to the village of Troo in the Loire Valley during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Paris and large swathes of France are battling the latest in a string of heatwaves, whose increased frequency scientists have linked to man-made climate change.
Troo, a settlement of some 315 residents, includes whole homes and rooms in tunnels left behind by digging for limestone to build the region’s houses and castles.
People in the village live in or rent out some 11 homes entirely buried in the rock.
Other such dwellings have been abandoned but could be lived in again.
