Plan your visit
Grotte Saint-Marcel is one of France’s great natural sites — bring good shoes and a camera. Locate it on the map, book a room nearby in a click, or add it to your travel list to build your itinerary.
About Grotte Saint-Marcel
Overlooking the Gorges de l'Ardèche near Bidon, the Grotte de Saint-Marcel is one of the great caves of southern France, a labyrinth stretching for more than fifty kilometres into the plateau, of which a spectacular section is open to visitors. Its glory is an astonishing staircase of natural basins — hundreds of rimstone dams, or gours, cascading one below another in a frozen waterfall of white and gold calcite, among the finest such formations in the world. A guided path descends through vast, richly concretioned chambers brought to life by dramatic lighting. Classified for its geology and its prehistoric deposits, the cave is a masterpiece of the underground. Grand, superbly decorated and set above one of France's most beautiful canyons, the Grotte de Saint-Marcel is a highlight of the Ardèche.