Our last activity during our adventure in the Dordogne region of France was the Padirac Cave (Le Gouffre de Padirac). We visited it in the afternoon of the last day of our trip right after our hike in the town of Autoire.
There are many famous caves in the Dordogne region but the Padirac cave is unique in its own right. It's a 103 meter deep fissure in the earth that spans 33 meters in diameter.
It was discovered in 1889 by the explorer, Édouard Alfred Martel and was opened to the public a year later. When you enter you are given a headset that explains the history of the cave and its discovery and it's actually one of the best parts of the experience overall.
To get to the bottom you travel down a 75 meter metal staircase (or lift) which brings you into a large open cavern.
This is of course after waiting in line outside for what feels like forever. We probably spent as much time (or more) waiting in lines that day, as we did actually viewing the cave.
To be honest I have mixed reviews about the whole experience of Padirac for the reason above. On the one hand the cave itself is amazing, I mean, truly spectacular, but on the other hand the experience of viewing it is really unenjoyiable and even super frustrating at times.
I think the issues arise from the fact that tickets appear to be oversold for the attraction making it way too crowded.
Ticket sales occur online and you're asked to show up 15 minutes early in order to be ready for your specified time slot - makes sense.
We arrived early and got into the massive lineup outside the entrance and that when things started to go down hill. We were informed part way through the line that they were an hour behind schedule and that we should basically go for a walk in the pouring rain and come back later.
After about 20 minutes of waiting in the rain and cold we decided to get back into the long lineup and hope for the best. When we finally made it back to the front we were again told to get out and come back later.
After about 40 minutes or so passed our original timeslot we eventually made it into the cave.
My mood was a little dampened by the cold and wet outside but our wait was over and it was hard to stay frustrated in the midst of something so spectacular.
Or so I thought....
Back to the positive side of things:
The bottom of the cavern is super impressive. It's basically a large natural room with a huge circular skylight in the ceiling that is several hundreds of feet up in the air.
It was a bit humbling and awe inspiring being within such an amazing natural wonder.
But then again, the people keep on coming down the ramp so there isn't much time to linger and enjoy it. You can view the cave at your own pace but I think there is something about narrow pathways and crowds of people that makes you naturally want to stay in pace with the group and keep on moving.
The pathway continues beyond the main cavern at the bottom of the staircase and takes you through a series of narrow tunnels and passageways that are full of a variety of interesting rock formations.
Its hard to take photos though and to tell what you're looking at when you view them.
But I do remember the ceiling being higher than I would have expected. It was at least a hundred feet in the air or more and I remember the pathway following next to a small creek of slowly moving water.
Its hard to imagine that the cave was originally explored by men walking in water beyond their boots with nothing to light their way but torches and candles.
I imagine the place would have been quite spooky when it was first discovered. Who knows what lays in wait inside a cave deep within the earth?
One of the coolest parts about this cave adventure is that part way through you get into a gondola like boat that takes you across a large waterway. You're not allowed to take pictures on it because the experience is shared with six other people and no one wants the natural beauty of the cave to be ruined by eight phones in the air, snapping photos around every turn.
Sometimes it's nice just to enjoy the experience though.
Unless of course the experience is waiting in another lineup!
As you might imagine the boats create another bottleneck and another long lineup to get on them. It's all made worse by the fact that each person has to scan their tickets again to make sure that no one decides to take the boat ride twice.
We waited in line for about seven minutes but got lucky when the turnstile attendant called into the crowd for anyone traveling in a pair of two. This allowed us to skip ahead of at least 30 other people. It would have been a 20 minute wait otherwise.
We weren't so lucky on the way back though. We waited in the massive line for the boats back to the other shore along with the rest of the visitors. By this point the whole experience was really starting to feel like one big waiting game - walk for 10 minutes then wait in line for 20 and then repeat. Thank God for the automated tour guide explaining the history of the caves every now and again. That kept the wait mildly interesting. It was never long enough to cover more than a minute or two of the wait though.
I did have a lot of time to take photos when we stopped though. That was a plus I suppose.
The photo below was the most interesting rock formations in the cave. It was formed from mineral filled water droplets falling from above and splashing down onto rocks and pools of water below.
Over time the minerals build up and form all sorts of unique structures and shapes.
Some are the more traditional stalactite like shapes that are often associated with caves and others are more flowing shapes that look like they are made from muddy sand. They reminded me of cauliflower.
After waiting for the boats across the water again I kind of just wanted to get the heck out of there. We had already been at the site for more than an hour more than I had originally thought we would and I was getting worried about the dog back at the hotel.
But of course there was another long wait in line, this time for an elevator up to the passage leading to the exit. That was followed by another huge line up in the passage itself. 10 minutes here. Another 10 minutes over there. I was silently losing my mind inside my head, thinking "Just let me the fuck out of here already!"
My Takeaway
If you've made it this far then you are probably aware already that my reviews of the Gouffre de Padirac are spotty at best. Though the cave itself is incredible, the constant waiting in long lines kind of ruins it and makes the experience rather unenjoyiable to say the least. I feel like the organization that runs the tours oversells the tickets wgich makes it way too crowded to be worth the experience. If you do decide to go I would recommend going early in the morning during the first time slot to at least avoid the initial wait at the begining if they happen to fall behind schedule.