A week long road-trip exploring the suburb quarries of Paris avec OT, Dweb, and Urban Junky(Dave).
Our journey starts in the small rural village of Jaulzy, north-east of paris to find the drive-in quarries, home of a few underground land speed record attempts. We first check out D16 quarry, a live potato plant. A little too live, and very small so we move on.
Onto the next quarry, where we had earlier seen a tractor leaving, no doubt after unloading their potato haul. An hour or so later we are in said tractor quarry. Time to take some photos, dine on bread and cheese and admire some of the fossils that remain in the ceiling which must be millions of years old.
The quarry is made up of very large chambers, high ceilings and wide haulageways, ample space to drive a tractor through i think you'll agree.
After some chat and some more photos, it suddenly occurs we are not the only people in the quarry. Out with the lights, no talking. All we can hear is a faint rumble at first, getting gradually louder and louder. By now there is not only noise but now light, as the headlights of the tractor rebound off the quarry walls, getting closer and louder. Its headed straight for us! Trying to run and hide in a quarry with no light is not very simple, but we hole up as Mr. John Deere unloads his trailer just yards from where we are hiding.
Cue another mad couple of minutes as the engine is revved so much you can feel the quarry vibrate. The tractor leaves back into darkness and luckily avoids us on his way out.
The tractor was not the only vehicle in the quarry however...
Sacre Bleu!
What a quarry to start with, but now time to move on. No chance of using the main entrance or we may bump into our tractor friend if were unlucky.
We head South of Paris that evening, to see the Sand quarry at Puiselet. Set in dense woodland, Puiselet is one of very few sand quarrys in France, and home to the finest, whitest sand i've ever seen.
The quarry environment is crazy with some truly huge chambers, and curvy walls, many of which simply crumble away. Maybe this is what the surface of the moon would look like.
This theme continues outside of the quarry. We sleep in a cavern of rock with mad shelves and ledges shaped by water from many moons ago.
Easily one of my favourite places to stay the night. Under the stars (and the rock!), time for a big fire, bottles of port and beer, and then sleep.
The next day we are west of Paris in the small town of Henocq to explore its vast, limestone quarry, again set underneath some woodland.
We spend hours navigating the quarry, crossing from network to another, and it is a good chance to see the injection method where quarries are filled with cement. This involves lots of stooping and crawling but i enjoyed seeing this.
What we were really looking for is the V2 rocket storage tunnel used by the Nazis during WW2. It was part of the old quarry but converted by the nazis for two reasons. A) Good protection from allied attacks because it is surrounded by the limestone quarry, which was used until the 1970s. And B) Its close proximity to the rail network for transporting the rockets.
After couple of hours looking unsuccesfully for the hole in the ceiling of the tunnel, we find it, 10 minutes from the original way we went in the quarry.
After much discussion of the best way to descend the awkward 30ft drop into the tunnel we settle for a rope ladder. It is one way in, one way out access to the tunnel, and we've heard of peoples ropes being cut many times before and for this reason UJ stays up top keeping an eye out for any unwanted visitors.
By no means the safest way but it does the job perfectly and by god is it worth it.
We start at one end of the tunnel, and the quarry injection has flooded through enough that it creates a slope and is high enough to touch the ceiling
But the rest of this 450m long, 10m high tunnel is easily one of the largest underground spaces i have ever been in.
I did not take many pictures of the tunnel but there were two junctions for the loading of trucks, and much machine gun fire on the pillars of the tunnel, which was very interesting to see and helped to try and imagine the tunnel occupied back in the day.
One more for scale
We need a place to sleep that night and are told of an old Napoleonic fort in the pleasant town of Buc just outside of Paris.
Trying to get round the huge moat in the dead of night is not easy, so we settle for sleep in the woods, and you guessed it, another big ass fire.
Up early(ish) next morning and were in.
Fort Du Haut Buc was built in 1871 as part of the defence of Paris and Versailles, and is now owned by the interior ministry of France. The construction and layout was very impressive and was like an equivalent of the detached bastion in Dover.
Thought the graffiti was worth a photo or too as well
It was also enjoyable to explore something overground for a few hours
The old lift
And tunnel leading to the building at the rear of the complex
And this just had to be done...
To be continued...
Our journey starts in the small rural village of Jaulzy, north-east of paris to find the drive-in quarries, home of a few underground land speed record attempts. We first check out D16 quarry, a live potato plant. A little too live, and very small so we move on.
Onto the next quarry, where we had earlier seen a tractor leaving, no doubt after unloading their potato haul. An hour or so later we are in said tractor quarry. Time to take some photos, dine on bread and cheese and admire some of the fossils that remain in the ceiling which must be millions of years old.
The quarry is made up of very large chambers, high ceilings and wide haulageways, ample space to drive a tractor through i think you'll agree.
After some chat and some more photos, it suddenly occurs we are not the only people in the quarry. Out with the lights, no talking. All we can hear is a faint rumble at first, getting gradually louder and louder. By now there is not only noise but now light, as the headlights of the tractor rebound off the quarry walls, getting closer and louder. Its headed straight for us! Trying to run and hide in a quarry with no light is not very simple, but we hole up as Mr. John Deere unloads his trailer just yards from where we are hiding.
Cue another mad couple of minutes as the engine is revved so much you can feel the quarry vibrate. The tractor leaves back into darkness and luckily avoids us on his way out.
The tractor was not the only vehicle in the quarry however...
Sacre Bleu!
What a quarry to start with, but now time to move on. No chance of using the main entrance or we may bump into our tractor friend if were unlucky.
We head South of Paris that evening, to see the Sand quarry at Puiselet. Set in dense woodland, Puiselet is one of very few sand quarrys in France, and home to the finest, whitest sand i've ever seen.
The quarry environment is crazy with some truly huge chambers, and curvy walls, many of which simply crumble away. Maybe this is what the surface of the moon would look like.
This theme continues outside of the quarry. We sleep in a cavern of rock with mad shelves and ledges shaped by water from many moons ago.
Easily one of my favourite places to stay the night. Under the stars (and the rock!), time for a big fire, bottles of port and beer, and then sleep.
The next day we are west of Paris in the small town of Henocq to explore its vast, limestone quarry, again set underneath some woodland.
We spend hours navigating the quarry, crossing from network to another, and it is a good chance to see the injection method where quarries are filled with cement. This involves lots of stooping and crawling but i enjoyed seeing this.
What we were really looking for is the V2 rocket storage tunnel used by the Nazis during WW2. It was part of the old quarry but converted by the nazis for two reasons. A) Good protection from allied attacks because it is surrounded by the limestone quarry, which was used until the 1970s. And B) Its close proximity to the rail network for transporting the rockets.
After couple of hours looking unsuccesfully for the hole in the ceiling of the tunnel, we find it, 10 minutes from the original way we went in the quarry.
After much discussion of the best way to descend the awkward 30ft drop into the tunnel we settle for a rope ladder. It is one way in, one way out access to the tunnel, and we've heard of peoples ropes being cut many times before and for this reason UJ stays up top keeping an eye out for any unwanted visitors.
By no means the safest way but it does the job perfectly and by god is it worth it.
We start at one end of the tunnel, and the quarry injection has flooded through enough that it creates a slope and is high enough to touch the ceiling
But the rest of this 450m long, 10m high tunnel is easily one of the largest underground spaces i have ever been in.
I did not take many pictures of the tunnel but there were two junctions for the loading of trucks, and much machine gun fire on the pillars of the tunnel, which was very interesting to see and helped to try and imagine the tunnel occupied back in the day.
One more for scale
We need a place to sleep that night and are told of an old Napoleonic fort in the pleasant town of Buc just outside of Paris.
Trying to get round the huge moat in the dead of night is not easy, so we settle for sleep in the woods, and you guessed it, another big ass fire.
Up early(ish) next morning and were in.
Fort Du Haut Buc was built in 1871 as part of the defence of Paris and Versailles, and is now owned by the interior ministry of France. The construction and layout was very impressive and was like an equivalent of the detached bastion in Dover.
Thought the graffiti was worth a photo or too as well
It was also enjoyable to explore something overground for a few hours
The old lift
And tunnel leading to the building at the rear of the complex
And this just had to be done...
To be continued...
Last edited:
No photos, epic fail. 
