Plan your visit
Lac de Chalain 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 Lac de Chalain
Gleaming turquoise beneath wooded cliffs in the heart of the Jura lake district, the Lac de Chalain is a natural glacial lake of exceptional clarity and colour. Its warm, shallow shallows and pebble-and-sand beaches make it a summer favourite for swimming and paddling, while the steep forested slopes and limestone bluffs frame the water in deep green. Chalain is also a place of deep history: its shores preserved remarkable Neolithic pile-dwellings, now part of a UNESCO World Heritage listing of prehistoric lake settlements across the Alps. Canoeing, diving and lakeside walks complete the experience, with the great waterfalls of the Hérisson only a short drive away. Few French lakes combine such vivid water, wild scenery and ancient past.