"The Chasm (Gouffre) of Padirac" Padirac by hquittner

Padirac Travel Guide: 3 reviews and 18 photos

Looking Up from the Bottom of the Gouffre

Why Here?

Padirac as a town exists to provide lodging space for workers for the tourist attraction and support for the sightseers (eateries, places to spend the night, parking space). It is the most popular cavern in France with between 500 and 1500 visitors a day. There are no previous descriptions in VT and only a few mentions of its existence, yet the Michelin rates it 3*. (They have a tendency to over-rate caverns). It is a fine outing if you are visiting the Dordogne area (15 km from the river); we visited from Gramat (9 km)

The Entry

The Ticket Office

Tickets are purchased in the main building. You then may either take an elevator or walk down a protected flight of stairs to a depth of 75 meters. This is the entry to the caverns. This area is a chasm (gouffre) which formed long ago when the roof of a cavern eroded and collapsed, like a giant sink-hole. In all of our cavern sightseeing we have never seen this phenomenon elsewhere.

Last visit to Padirac: May 1994
Intro Updated May 7, 2008
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Reviews (1)

Enter the Caverns of Padirac Things to Do (1)

The elevator (or stairway) descends 75 meters along the edge of a hole that is almost 100 m in circumference and 35m in... more travel advice

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himalia11 Jul 25, 2012 at 10:56 AM

This cave with an underground boat trip must be very interesting! But that stairway looks scary to me...