Gouffre de Padirac

Vast Limestone Chasm About 75 M Deep (Confirm) With An Underground River Explored By Boat, Open To Visitors Since 1898 · Padirac, Occitanie

The Gouffre de Padirac is a huge round hole in the limestone plateau of the Lot, about thirty metres across and roughly seventy-five metres deep, with a green circle of sky at the top and a river flowing through caves at the bottom. The explorer Édouard-Alfred Martel pushed along the underground river in the late 1880s, and the cave opened to visitors in 1898. Today you go down the shaft by lifts and stairs, walk into the cave, and then board flat-bottomed boats steered by boatmen along a stretch of clear, still underground river. The visit continues on foot past the Lac de la Pluie, fed by drips from a great stalactite, and into the Great Dome, a cavern far taller than a cathedral nave. The air stays cool all year. It is one of the most visited natural sites in France, visits run on timed tickets, and summer days sell out. The cave closes for the winter months. Rocamadour, the cliffside pilgrimage village, is about fifteen minutes away, and most people see both on the same day.

Gouffre de Padirac, 46500 Padirac, Lot, Padirac, Occitanie, France

Padirac is seasonal: it usually opens around the end of March or early April and closes in early November, staying shut through the winter; confirm the exact opening and closing dates for the year. Hours are longest in July and August, when the cave opens early and runs visits into the evening, and shorter in spring and autumn. Every visit is on a timed ticket, sold online for a specific day and slot, and in summer and on French school holidays the slots can sell out days ahead, so people who arrive without a ticket may wait hours or be turned away. Arrive a little before your slot, since the walk from the car park and the queue for the lifts take time, and a missed slot may not be moved. The visit itself takes roughly an hour and a half. The boat section runs whenever the cave is open, but it can be suspended after very heavy rain when the river rises; in that case the visit may be shortened. The restaurant and shop at the top follow the cave's season. Rocamadour nearby has its own hours, and many of its sites also close or shorten hours in winter.

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