Gouffre de Padirac Camping

A few minutes from Rocamadour and the Périgord Noir, the Padirac chasm, the most famous in Europe, is a unique place. This natural cavity, 35 metres in diameter and 103 metres deep, is home to a 40-kilometre-long underground river.

Source of many legends, this impressive cavity would have been, according to a popular tale, formed by the devil with a single heel strike in order to challenge St Martin. St. Martin would have leapt over the chasm on his mule and his mule would have left his footprint in the ground, still visible.

After numerous expeditions and experiments, the chasm was inaugurated in 1899 and part of the Paris World Fair was devoted to it, which has since increased its success.

Today, the visit to the chasm takes the visitor on a 500-metre journey to the Great Dome room, whose vault rises to 94 metres, one of the most impressive in Europe.