It is a wonderful sunny day in Provence as Donna, Wayne and I set out for Le Grotte de Trabuc, situated at the edge of Cevennes National Park. between Ales, Anduze and St Jean du Gard. It takes much longer to drive to our destination than expected, due to the detours caused by the inundation. * However it is certainly worth the drive for Trabuc has been called one of the most important caves in the Cevennes.
As in the Chauvet-Pont-d’Arc Caves, early spelunkers found tools and bones that indicate habitation of pre-historic man and animals. They also found signs of the early Romans, Camisard refugees of the reformation, who also used it as a gunpowder factory and later, bandits who used it as a hideout. A Trabuc pistol left by one of these Trabucaires was found and is exhibited in the cave. It has a large mouth and is not unlike a sawed-off shotgun. When filled with scrap iron and gunpowder, it becomes a deadly weapon. There also have been rumors of hidden booty, which so far has not been found. Trabuc is also mentioned in Marco Polo’s “ Book of Marvels.” Unlike Chauvet the cave does not appear to have wall decorations, at least not in the areas where tourists are allowed. Perhaps this is because this series of caves were formed by water erosion which continues today. This water reaches the surface and joins the Gardon de Mialet River a few kilometres away.
We arrive and park in the huge parking lot and head for the entrance building, which houses a small café and souvenir shop. Judging by the size of the lot we surmise that in the summer, this place must be very busy. Fortunately, there are only a few would-be spelunkers here. For reasons of preservation of this national treasure, the number of people allowed in the cave at one time is severely limited. After buying our tickets our small group is met by a guide, who leads us into the entrance to the cave.
The entrance, built by miners of Ales, is not the original one. The much narrower original opening is lower down the mountain. They tunneled a new one here for the convenience of tourists. At the end of the tunnel, metal stairs descend past a rockslide, called “Rock Piles of Hope,”so named, because they hope to find another entrance here. This is thought to be possible, because of draughts coming through.
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