The underground landscapes of the Aven d'Orgnac cave
You open your eyes, the sun is already shining, you smell the aroma of coffee and glimpse croissants on the table. The day starts well.
After a lovely breakfast, you slip on a warm and comfortable outfit and your all-terrain trainers, having decided to go down into the bowels of the earth, some 121 metres deep.
You’re ready to go off in the footsteps of Robert de Joly, who discovered the Aven d’Orgnac cave in 1935. Having gently gone down 700 steps, you’ll enter the first chamber of the cave and will be amazed facing 7,000 m² of diverse and varied concretions (both stalagmites and stalactites).
When observing them, you immediately imagine “forests comprising stacks of plates”, “Towers of Pisa”, “pine cones” or even “giant palm trees”.
The visit continues in the Chaos chamber and reveals the patient work of water, in sculpting the limestone rock here. This impressive masterpiece with white, purple, ochre and brown shades will amaze you.
The star of the show is the Red chamber, the original gallery hollowed out by the underground river, which flowed here some…5 million years ago!
Good news! Your ascent is in a lift. You get back to the surface and find the sunshine, ever present in the Ardèche!
A terrace in the shade of holm oaks awaits you for a gourmet stop at Xavier, which offers a fresh snack menu made on-site. Unless you’d prefer the “Les Stalagmites” and “Les Terrasses de l’Aven” restaurants right next to the site.
Are you in a sports mood? Be seduced by the combination of Descente Panoramique & Vertige Souterrain (Panoramic Descent & Underground Via Ferrata). The descent abseiling down 50 metres gives you a huge adrenaline rush.
You then link up, going round the ceilings of the cave, more than 30 metres high. This highly overhead rope course ends with a grand finale, with a zip line in the Chaos chamber.
The day has not yet ended as a further original sensory experience will not leave you unmoved…
After going down 220 steps, you’ll find yourself in partial darkness and absolute peace. favourable to heightening the senses. Perfect for a beginners session in the art of wine-tasting with a wine expert guide.
