Campsite Lot near the Gouffre de Padirac and the Pech Merle cave
Quercy is a land of water and stone. This is the land of prehistoric man. In the depths of the land, under the limestone of the causse and in the cliffs, lies an exceptional heritage, as important as it is little-known. Its buried treasures, particularly the decorated caves, promise a quality and quantity of remains comparable to, if not greater than, that of the Dordogne. As a result, the Lot department receives more than half of the excavation permits issued by the French government.
The Padirac chasm
North of Rocamadour, the town of Padirac is home to Europe's most famous chasm, 35 metres in diameter and 75 metres deep at its deepest point. The Gouffre de Padirac is in fact a vast open-air cavity created by the collapse of the vault of a gigantic cave. This abyss, known and feared for ages by the inhabitants of the region, was only exploited at the end of the 19th century.
The bottom of the abyss is reached by two lifts lined with metal staircases before plunging into the bowels of the earth for a fabulous journey. A hundred metres underground, a pier offers boat trips on a 500-metre-long flat river. The water has carved out a passageway between cliffs that are sometimes 60 metres high. In the bowels of Padirac, you can contemplate the Grande pendeloque du lac de la pluie, a 60-metre-long stalactite that skims the surface of the lake, a series of emerald-green basins hemmed in with limestone concretions in the Salle des Gours, and the pille d'assiette in the Salle du Grand Dôme, a 94-metre-high vault.... We'll leave you to discover the rest.....
Book online: gouffre-de-padirac.com
Enjoy your visit
The Pech Merle cave
The Lot has its own Lascaux: the Grotte du Pech Merle Here you can visit a real cave decorated with exceptional prehistoric paintings: mammoths, horses, buffalo women... and moving human footprints. The Pech Merle cave recreates the art of the very first men.
Located in the commune of Cabreret and the Célé Valley. The natural beauty of the site, carved out of the limestone subsoil of the Causse, is combined with prehistoric works of art. The chronology of the site is breathtaking, so deep are its origins in the dawn of time. Its monumental gallery, 500 metres deep, was dug out sixty million years ago by acidic water. Corrosion and dissolution have transmuted the limestone into a multitude of crystallised forms, pillars, monoliths, columns, stalactites and stalagmites and candelabras...
The great hall of the Black Frieze, the 7-metre long and 3-metre high "mammoth chapel", announces the impressive treasure trove. 25 animal figures: a horse, bison, mammoths, signs of birds in flight, drawings of aurochs, ibex, etc.
A museum awaits you, as well as a short documentary film to help you better understand the traces of man and his passage.
