The Caves of Saumur
Treasures hidden in the tuffeau stone
📱 1 to 10 phones · 1 team per phone · Independent codes
Saumur is a troglodyte city. Beneath its streets, kilometers of galleries carved in tuffeau stone hide treasures from the Wars of Religion. The Cadre Noir, the elite cavalry school, guards a secret known only to the finest riders.
Beneath the white city, a stone labyrinth has kept its secrets for five centuries
The Château de Saumur, perched on its white tuffeau promontory, looks like a fairytale castle — and that is exactly how the Limbourg brothers painted it in the Très Riches Heures of the Duke of Berry in the 15th century. But beneath this surface elegance, Saumur hides an underground world. Hundreds of troglodyte caves carved in limestone extend beneath the city, witnesses to centuries of trade, wars and secrets.
« "War is the only art where horse and man become one." »— — Traditional motto of the Cadre Noir of Saumur
Saumur — the white city with a thousand caves
Saumur owes its existence to tuffeau, the soft white limestone that forms the subsoil of the entire Loire Valley. Since Gallo-Roman times, it has been quarried to build châteaux, churches and houses — leaving behind a network of underground galleries stretching for dozens of kilometers. These caves became wine cellars, mushroom farms, and during the Wars of Religion, refuges for persecuted Protestants.
In the 16th century, Saumur was one of France's great Protestant strongholds. Governor Philippe Duplessis-Mornay, nicknamed the "pope of the Huguenots," founded a Protestant academy there to rival the Sorbonne. When the revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685) banned Protestantism, entire families hid their possessions and sacred texts in the troglodyte caves — some have never been found.
The Cadre Noir of Saumur, founded in 1828, is the world's most prestigious riding school. Its riders, dressed in black, perpetuate an equestrian art inscribed on UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list. The Dolmen de Bagneux, just minutes from the center, is the largest dolmen in France (23 meters long) — proof that Saumur was keeping secrets long before recorded history.
A game, a guided tour and a heritage guide — all in one
You're not just buying an escape game. You're carrying a living guide — historical anecdotes, forgotten legends, key monuments, hidden architecture — unfolding as you go.
At each stop, places ordinary guides miss — secret façades, sculpted crests, alleys steeped in history.
Every riddle is rooted in a real historical fact or local legend. You leave with dozens of stories to tell.
Learn to read buildings — flamboyant Gothic, Baroque, Art Deco — like a real art historian, while having fun.
Walk through the city like a novel's character — every alley becomes a stage, every square a theatre.
A voice walks with you at every step, tells the story of each place, reads clues, adds a cinematic feel.
Keep access to the guide & game for 1 year. Come back any time, share it with friends.
« You will not leave this city the way you entered it. »
How does it work?
Explore the city on foot solving puzzles based on real historical facts. No locked room — the city is your playground.
No app to download. Play directly from your browser. Guided step by step, at your own pace.
One purchase per phone is enough. Play with family, friends or as a couple — everyone participates.
Point your phone at the façade: a historical character appears and speaks to you in your language. Golden letters magically write themselves on the wall to reveal the puzzle answer.
Stuck? Progressive personalised hints. The character repeats the puzzle on demand — at your own pace.
French, English, German, Spanish, Italian + 27 other languages auto-translated by AI.
The game downloads to your phone on start. Once the "✓ Downloaded" indicator appears, everything works without data — narration, AR, GPS and puzzles. Perfect abroad without a data plan.
The Route
5 stages through the city
The gameplay: AR, camera, hidden clues
At each stop, open your phone camera: an augmented reality character appears on the façade and speaks your language. Hunt the clue — it materializes as golden letters on the real wall or floats in front of you. When you find it, the phone vibrates, an AR chest opens and reveals your answer fragment. 8 stops, 8 clues to find with the camera, 1 final code.
The stops on your route are a surprise. You'll discover them one by one, guided by your phone, starting from the meeting point.
How does it work with a group?
One phone = one team. Pick the number at checkout (1 to 10).
Solo, or a group sharing the screen. One team, one code.
Family, couple, or 2-3 teams competing. Each phone has its own code and its own score.
Friends, bachelor/bachelorette, small office outing — each their own code, each plays at their own pace. Tiered pricing then €6 flat per phone from the 6th.
- ✓All codes are independent — play at the same time OR separately, each team advances at its own pace.
- ✓Leaderboard between your teams + global game leaderboard — each score appears in the public ranking.
- ✓More than 10 phones or need a personalized quest? Discover custom tours.
Ready to live this adventure?
Get my code · 12€No calendar booking. Code sent immediately by email.
🔒 Secure payment · Code in 5 min · Free cancellation
Practical info
Why this route?
Underground world
Explore Saumur's troglodyte caves, carved in tuffeau since Roman times.
Cadre Noir
Discover the world's most prestigious riding school, a UNESCO heritage site.
Wars of Religion
Relive the Catholic-Protestant conflicts that shaped Saumur in the 16th century.
Megaliths
The Dolmen de Bagneux, the largest in France, proves Saumur has kept secrets for 5,000 years.
Beneath the white stone, memory never fades.
Uncover the secrets buried in Saumur's troglodyte caves.
9 features nobody else has
OddballTrip combines gamified play, augmented reality and AI. All our competitors deliver 1 or 2 of these angles. We deliver all 5.
AR treasure chest
A golden chest floats in front of the monument. Tap → opening animation → reveals a secret message.
AR narrator character
Point your phone at the façade: a knight, witch, monk, sailor, detective or ghost appears full-screen and speaks to you in your language with their dedicated ElevenLabs voice (each character has their own unique voice) — your living guide.
Magic golden letters
At the puzzle climax, golden letters magically write themselves on the real wall — that's the puzzle answer. An unforgettable visual effect.
Written + audio narration
Every puzzle available as text AND voice-over: read at your own pace or listen eyes-free while walking. Great in groups and for accessibility.
360° radar + vibration
A mini-radar shows the target even behind you, and the phone vibrates when you aim in the right direction.
Heritage storytelling
Every puzzle weaves in real historical facts (architecture, era, anecdotes). You learn by playing — like a gamified audioguide.
Progressive AI hints
3 levels of AI-generated help: vibe → where to look → answer format. You're never stuck.
AR selfie memento
At the end of the game, capture a selfie with OddballTrip banner + mascot, shareable on Instagram, TikTok.
Zero app to install
PWA technology: open the link, it plays in your browser. Same quality as an app, no App Store hassle.
Frequently asked questions
Q01The Caves of Saumur — is it a guided trail or a free-form hunt?
It's a semi-guided trail: GPS points you to the next stop, but you find the camera clue and solve the puzzle yourself. No app to install, everything runs in your browser.
Q02Can we split The Caves of Saumur across two days?
Yes — your code stays active and progress is saved. You can start Saturday afternoon, finish Sunday morning. Some players actually prefer this format to make the most of a full weekend on site.
Q03Can we do The Caves of Saumur as a family with kids?
Yes, from age 6 with an adult reading puzzles aloud, and from age 12 on their own. Kids love the "find the camera clue" part — it's very visual, gets them genuinely involved.
Q04Do we need 4G data to play?
Intermittent 4G is plenty. Maps are cached at startup. Narration and clues load per stop, so a so-so signal between stops is fine. GPS itself uses no data.
Avis des aventuriers
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Your turn to play
From the fairytale château to the underground caves, from the Cadre Noir to the prehistoric dolmen — dive into five thousand years of secrets hidden beneath Saumur's white stone.
1 purchase = 1 phone. Play several on the same device.
No calendar booking. Code sent immediately by email.
🔒Secure payment · Code in 5 min · Free cancellation
🪙+15 TripCoins granted with your booking
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