Dordogne - Caves and Chasms

Caves and natural abysses of Dordogne - Vézère Valley

Jules Verne made dream with his journey in the center of the earth. Without going also far, the Vézère Valley allows the visitors to discover the beauties (and to take advantage of the freshness) of the underground world widely emphasized by exceptional scenographies.

The exception: the abyss of Proumeyssac

An abyss is a vertical well giving access to a cave. The abyss of Proumeyssac was discovered in 1907 in Vézère Valley. it was opened to the visit in 1924. Its exceptional beauty and its majestic volumes were quickly worth to him the nickname of "crystal cathedral".

It is even today the vastest cavity fitted out by Périgord. The streaming always important feeds the stalactites which form in turn four petrifying fountains answering the names of jellyfish, stunt, siren and prioresses. A scenography mixing skillfully sound and light reveals little by little the geological marvels of this abyss so particular.

The Big Rock: corals under the earth

The cave of the Big Rock ('Le Grand Roc'), discovered in 1924, proposes in the visit of the cramped rooms abounding in stalactites, in stalagmites but especially in drops **, and of eccentric *** looking like corals.

A story of water and stone

It is the karstic relief of Black Périgord that is at the origin of this tremendous subterranean wealth. Rainwater, charged in carbon dioxide, dissolves certain rocks and avoid it the others. Waters take care of it calcite that they put down according to slopes, whims of the relief and the geology.

They so give birth to fine stony sculptures stalagmites of which the most known are stalactites and. In other places, as to Terrasson, it is the will "spider" which gave birth to cluzeaux, mysterious underground shelters provided with water sources.