Le Gouffre de Padirac – road trip roundup #2

Le Gouffre de Padirac is possibly the most beautiful natural landmark I have ever seen. A gouffre (pronounced ‘goof-rrr’) is a cave, and this one is massive. Apart from stalactites and stalagmites, the gouffre offers an underground boat ride at a constant 12°C. So, remember your jumper even on a hot day, and remember to laugh when the man steering your boat pretends to rock it a bit too much: if you were stuck underground in a damp cave for many hours each day, you’d want the tourists to humour you too.

The gouffre was formed over time naturally. It has something to do with acid rain, but the explanation was in French so I didn’t quite catch, well, any of it. What I did understand was that rainwater has since washed down some seeds, and there is now a tiny fern growing under one of the courtesy lights – the first plant life there. Looking at it is a bit look like looking at your friend’s baby scan: it’s tiny; it doesn’t seem real; but you’re still meant to say ‘wow’.

Of course, photography — even without a flash — is not allowed. So none of the photos below were actually taken, and none of the French guides were tipped well for not noticing any blatant photography that was going on before, during and after the tour.

One thing to consider before arriving is that this tourist attraction closes earlier than most others in France. It takes a good hour and a half to see everything, and perhaps a bit longer if you choose to mount the hundreds of stairs instead of using the three separate escalators to get back to the top. So, if you turn up at 6.03pm (like we did), the gates will be shut and the restaurant next to the gouffre that sells gauffres (waffles, pronouced ‘goff-rrr’) has probably run out of gauffres, making the early closure even more disappointing. We returned the next morning and the queue was massive, but fast. When we left just before midday, the queue had vanished and those arriving had the added benefit of cooling down during the hottest part of the day at the busiest time of summer. We did not stop for a gauffre. It was too hot and we had a red village to see.

Dordogne road trip links

Roadtrip Roundup 1: Dune du Pilat — largest sand dune in France

Roadtrip Roundup 3: Le Viaduc de Millau — worlds tallest bridge in 2008

Roadtrip Roundup 4: Marqueyssac gardens — kilometres of natural wonder

Roadtrip Roundup 5: La Roque St Christophe — village carved in rockface

Roadtrip Roundup 6: Chateau de Beynac — ancient restored castle

Roadtrip Roundup 7: Everything else — Lascaux, Gouffre de Proumeyssac, Les Eyzies de Tayac Sarlat-la-Canéda, Collonges les Rouge

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I'm a technical author, journalist and writer from Australia who has been living in Europe since 2000 and exploring the world from there. My passions are writing, snow sports and travel.