Day 38, Thursday, October 5, 2023

Today we are visiting the Gouffre de Padirac which is about 1 1/4 hours east of Sarlat. This cave was opened to visitors in 1899 and now receives 800,000 visitors a year.  A gouffre is sinkhole or pothole.  Well, this is one heck of a pothole!  

We climb down several flights of stairs cut into the rock and exit this first staircase to start descending the metal exposed stairs on the side of the gouffre.  We are going way down there.

When we reach the bottom…we look up…way up…

and then down…and surprise…more stairs. Once we are inside the cave there are even more stairs…

We finally reach the floor level of the cave, after descending 543 stairs!  But wow!  It was so worth it and non flash photos are allowed everywhere except during the boat rides, so I am happy.  Yes…there are lakes and two boat rides 103 meters below the surface!

I took this photo after we disembarked from our boat ride.  The lake that we rode on is called Lac de la Pluie, because it is always raining. We had light rain falling on us on that part of the boat ride.  Can you imagine continuous rain? and at 103 meters underground!

Our walk continues past amazing rock formations …

that are enormous…

with incredible shapes and colours…

only to arrive at the beautiful Lac des Gours with crystal clear reflections.

At the far end of this lake we can see the river below with an old boat.  I don’t think the public is allowed in that part of the cave.

At this point we are given the option of returning the way we came or we can continue to another part of the cave that requires climbing more steps…lots more steps!  Of course we choose to continue further into the cave!The displays here shows some pictures of cave exploration…not for me..it looks cold, wet and exhausting and rather frightening as well. In all, 42 kilometres of galleries have been mapped by speleologists but there are still more areas that have not yet been explored.

There is a warning that there are lots of stairs, and wet, slippery sections…that isn’t going to stop us.  So up we go… And there is another lake, twenty metres above the river!  Mind boggling!  Lake Superior (Upper Lake), is crystal clear and an incredible aqua colour.  The round tan shaped formations on the right hand of the photo form a dam that holds the water in this lake.“A remarkable stalagmite lies above the lake. It is nicknamed the Pile d’Assiettes (Pile of Plates) because of its surprising resemblance to stacked-up china. It is a typical high-roof stalagmite formed when such a structure exceeds several tens of metres in height. Drops of water fall to the ground at great speed and explode, depositing limestone in circles and giving rise to very flattened formations.”  ~ https://www.gouffre-de-padirac.com/en/salle-du-grand-dome   We are standing beneath the Grand Dome, which rises 94 meters above us.

This diagram shows how high above the river Lake Superior is, and the incredible dome that rises above it.

There are still more steps, many more steps…

and many more amazing formations…

that are enormous. Bob is in the bottom of this photo to give an idea of their size. I am quite relieved that we do not have to climb these steps!

This is a magical underground world!

More formations, just because they are so wondrous…

and I am amazed by their colours. It is difficult not to include all even more photos.

We need to descend way down there!

We continue to walk by so many rock formations…I have run out of words to describe how amazing they are.  Édouar-Alfred Martel, the discoverer of this cave said that these are “Marvellous areas that can only be lived in by fairies.”     

We need to go way down to where that light is.

Finally we can see the dock for our return boat ride.

But first we still pass by even more formations.  The roof on the bottom right protects us from water drops as we walk past this one.

All too soon we are back at the boats.  Honestly, I would have been happy to just turn around and trace our steps a second time…but there are no washrooms down here!  This boat just arriving is the one we take on our return journey.

We sit right at the front, so we will have a great view of the Grande Pendeloque (Great Chandelier) which is a 60-m-long series of calcite formations that seems to hang in the air above our heads, but no photos are allowed on the boat trip.

We reluctantly make our way back to the exit.  One last photo in the cave.

We decide to take the elevators back up to the surface from here.  We are going to visit Rocamadour this afternoon and it also has lots of steps.

It is less than a half hour drive to Rocamadour, which is a famous pilgrimage site and a  UNESCO World Heritage site.  It takes a while to figure out where to park but we finally find spot near the top rather than the bottom of this cliffside village. This it our view while having lunch.

We are disappointed to discover that the ramparts are closed for restoration.  We were looking forward to the views from the ramparts,  so we start on our way down towards the church and chapels.  Part way down the winding path, this cave marks the end of the Stations Of The Cross.  Turns out we are starting at the end instead of the beginning.  

One of the fourteen Station of the Cross.

I did mention that it was a winding path, and fairly steep.

Looking up towards the ramparts, with the afternoon sun looking low in the sky because of the steep angle.

The trees and hillsides are covered with ivy.  The grounds are not terribly well kept here.

Finally we enter the Sanctuary… 

and walk past many plaques engraved with thanks for prayers answered.

Some of the churches and chapels are built right into the stone cliffs, which are visible in the back of the 850 year old Basilica of St. Saviour.

The Black Virgin in the Notre Dame Chapel.  A group has arrived for a private mass so we don’t stay long.  This is the second Black Virgin we have seen on our travels.

In this spot, in 1166 the perfectly preserved body of an early Christian hermit who died in 418 AD was discovered… St. Amadour.

However, there is also a small chapel and a patron saint for Rugby!  We were not expecting that.

A view of the valley from the sanctuary.

We start walking back up the hill to our carpark.  We decided not to go all the way down to the Medieval village at the bottom of Rocamadour.  It now consists of lots of shops selling tourist souvenirs and restaurants.  It has been a long day and we are ready to go home.

I loved this little red leaf stuck on the side of this rock.

There is a little church in the hamlet of L’Hospitalet on our way to the carpark but it isn’t open so we head home.  We were both a bit underwhelmed by Rocamadour….it didn’t have the presence that we were expecting…although we are not really sure how to explain why.