DORDOGNE - Gouffre de Padirac

This has to be one of the most beautiful caves I have ever visited, and a visit I will never forget. I’d seen mention of it in my guide book, but for some reason I’d decided to do the Gouffre de Proumeyssac instead, so it was only fate that I saw the sign as I was leaving Rocamadour, and it was only about 12km, I decided to take a look.

The first thing that struck me was how different the outside was to other caves I’ve visited. There is a huge building that reminded me of an old fashioned cinema, a popular auberge opposite for café or lunch and beautiful landscaped gardens opposite with a picnic area and shady seats.



Unusually, you can also see the ‘gouffre’ which is the hole in the ground that leads down into the cave from just outside the entrance. It is huge – much larger than any others I have seen – and the descent is actually down via this hole either in a glass sided life of by about 500 stairs.

Once you get inside, there is a walk of about 300m which is via a dimly lit corridor. The rocks are more a deep ravine than the range of stalactites and stalagmites that I have seen in other caves, but you can’t help but be impressed by the sheer scale. However, the real fun begins when you get to the embarkation area, as the visit starts with a ride through the cave pools on a small flat bottomed, gondola style boat. What a spectacular thing to do and I was so glad I didn’t know how terrified I would be in advance as I might have missed out (I don’t like boats!).



The water is so deep and clear, it is absolutely stunning. After about 500m, the visit continues on foot and this is where the amazing rock formations are to be found with huge calcite sculptures that resemble jelly fish, mushrooms and even broccoli! There were above 300 steps on the walking part of the tour and they climb to a height of about 80m, so it is not recommended for those with asthma, heart conditions or walking difficulties which meant that some of our group had to wait at the gondola station. The caves are so full of water, that bizarre bus shelter type things have been put up at various points, but I still managed to get quite wet.

However, for me the most impressive thing has to be the huge pools with their natural damns of calcified rock which look so inviting, that I was almost tempted to take a dip! This is one of the more expensive cave visits at 9€, but worth every penny in my opinion.