The most beautiful passages carved into the stone of the great network of underground quarries of the south of Paris.

Despite appearances, which seems to be stone blocks are blocks of sand!

Point of view on a large swath of the underground quarry of Saint-Leu Esserent. This type of stone in the quarry is called mass of gold.

A site cutting of stone, deep in the underground quarry of Saint-Leu Esserent. The workers worked from top to bottom. Therefore, they should suspend their site on a scaffold, set into the wall.

Notre-Dame de l'Assomption de Clermont-Ferrand is built of volcanic stone. That is why it is so dark in color.

The quarry Montesson was used (as often) for the cultivation of mushrooms. Long abandoned, the quarry of building stone has been cut in half during the construction of the highway A14. In 2010, further work has finally destroyed this beautiful part of the quarry.

The underground limestone quarry of Bazemont, located in the Yvelines, was exploited for its rough limestone. There are still several excavations along the quarry road. People said in the village that the steeple of the cathedral of Chartres was built with stone from this quarry.

The quarry is also witnessed the wars of the 19th century. There are many drawings of ancient time. Drawings of soldiers, praise God, graffiti. Second quarries are reused in mushroom places. You can see the remains of the culture of the mushroom into stacks.

People of Bazemont also operated quarries in manufacturing lime from limestone. A furnace that access was by way of Grignens are still at the bottom of the valley Rogère.

source: Website of the City of Bazemont

The extraction wells to remove the stones from the quarry.

This well was the only access to other parts of the quarry. Here, explorers sure to be the only ones in the quarry let the rope that we see. After they know about us. They came to retrieve the rope. Ridicule does not kill. In short, we had to dig the stone steps to the next time. In the end, it was more practical to have a permanent ladder!

Quarries of Saint-Cloud, in the Trocadero Park

The underground quarries of Saint-Cloud (of coarse limestone) are used as building stone. The grand facade of the Colonnade of the Louvre is partly made with this stone. The rest comes from the underground quarry of Saint-Leu Esserent. It also used the stone to build the castle of Saint-Cloud, located a few tens of meters from the quarry.

The walls of building quarry were partially dismantled to get new stones. They were used to renovate the castle of Saint-Cloud in the 19th century. However, the consequences of a large fire, the foundations were razed. The stones stolen are become useless.