France Cave with prehistoric art
Pair-non-Pair
14 °C inside, all year.
Xabi Rome-Hérault · CC BY 3.0
The descent
The entrance, at 28 m.
The real relief above Pair-non-Pair, measured on the Copernicus model every 30 m, and the cave going down at the same vertical scale.
The depth is the one published by those who explored it; the shape of the galleries is a sketch, not a survey. No depth has been published for this cave yet.
28m
Entrance altitude
from the 30 m relief model
14°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
Inside and outside
14 °C inside, all year.
Deep inside, a cave keeps the average temperature of the year outside: about 14 °C here, in January and in August. In August the afternoon reaches 28 °C at the entrance, 14 °C warmer than inside: take a jacket. The best months to escape the heat are from July to August. The wettest months are in January and in November: water rises fast underground, so never go in without a guide after heavy rain.
- 10°2°Jan
- 11°2°Feb
- 14°4°Mar
- 18°7°Apr
- 21°10°May
- 25°14°Jun
- 27°16°Jul
- 28°16°Aug
- 25°13°Sep
- 20°10°Oct
- 14°6°Nov
- 10°3°Dec
Outside: afternoon and night averages for 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) brought to the altitude of the entrance. Inside: the yearly average, which deep parts of a cave keep. Near the entrance it follows the weather a little.
Cave in France
Pair-non-Pair is a cave with prehistoric art in France. The entrance is at 28 m. It has an underground river. It is closed to the public to protect it.
Getting there.
- No public accessProtected for science or for its art. Look for a replica or a visitor centre nearby.
- Marcampsnearest town · 0.7 km in a straight line
- Bordeaux–Mérignac Airport (BOD)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 29 km in a straight lineCar hire at BOD airport (Bordeaux)Discover Cars · sponsored link↗
Plan the visit
Guided tours, a bed nearby, a car.
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
The water
The Le Moron runs highest from November to February.
The Le Moron carries about 2.8 m³/s on average here. It runs highest from November to February. It is lowest from July to September.
- 4.8 m³/sJan
- 3.8 m³/sFeb
- 3.3 m³/sMar
- 2.6 m³/sApr
- 2.3 m³/sMay
- 1.7 m³/sJun
- 1.1 m³/sJul
- 0.9 m³/sAug
- 1.1 m³/sSep
- 2.2 m³/sOct
- 3.9 m³/sNov
- 4.6 m³/sDec
From about 0.90 m³/s in the lowest month to 4.8 m³/s in the highest. Its basin above this point covers 168 km².
Estimate: long-term flow from the HydroATLAS model (WaterGAP, 1971–2000) shaped by the monthly rain, snow and temperature of the area (NASA POWER). Dams change it. Not a forecast.
From above.
The ground above the cave, with the relief shaded, the line of the section and what people have mapped around the entrance.
N
1.5 km
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 6.0 × 6.0 km, north up. The line is the section above. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Around the entrance.
- 3springs within 2 kmSource de Bonnefont ou de Sablas, Source de Bearnes
- 6car parks within 2 km
- 12bus stops within 2 km
- 6campsites within 8 kmChâteau Bertinerie, Camping Port Neuf, Camping municipal de la Citadelle and 3 more
- 10hotels and guesthouses within 8 kmVine house, Les Hauts de Guerry, Villa Fablion and 7 more
- 4restaurants and cafés within 3 km
- other cave entrances within 3 km
- sinkholes within 3 km
- caving clubs and spots within 15 km
- viewpoints within 3 km
- marked hiking routes within 3 km
- climbing crags within 3 km
- named waterfalls within 4 km
- information boards and visitor centres within 3 km
Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit, around the entrance. A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet. © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).
Towns nearby
- Marcamps0.7 km in a straight line
- Tauriac1.1 km in a straight line
- Saint-Gervais3.8 km in a straight line
- Ambès3.9 km in a straight line
- Bourg4.5 km in a straight line
- Pugnac4.8 km in a straight line
- Peujard4.9 km in a straight line
- Aubie7.8 km in a straight line
Month by month
The weather outside, at the entrance.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afternoon | 10 | 11 | 14 | 18 | 21 | 25 | 27 | 28 | 25 | 20 | 14 | 10 |
| Afternoon | 10 | 11 | 14 | 18 | 21 | 25 | 27 | 28 | 25 | 20 | 14 | 10 |
| Night | 2 | 2 | 4 | 7 | 10 | 14 | 16 | 16 | 13 | 10 | 6 | 3 |
| Rain (mm) | 82 | 58 | 63 | 58 | 66 | 56 | 41 | 46 | 46 | 68 | 85 | 80 |
| Rainy days | 13 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 12 | 10 | 9 | 9 | 10 | 12 | 14 | 14 |
| Sun hours/day | 2.4 | 4.3 | 5.5 | 7.1 | 7.8 | 8.8 | 9.0 | 8.3 | 7.4 | 4.8 | 3.2 | 2.5 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 10 | 10 | 2 | 82 | 2.4 |
| Feb | 11 | 11 | 2 | 58 | 4.3 |
| Mar | 14 | 14 | 4 | 63 | 5.5 |
| Apr | 18 | 18 | 7 | 58 | 7.1 |
| May | 21 | 21 | 10 | 66 | 7.8 |
| Jun | 25 | 25 | 14 | 56 | 8.8 |
| Jul | 27 | 27 | 16 | 41 | 9.0 |
| Aug | 28 | 28 | 16 | 46 | 8.3 |
| Sep | 25 | 25 | 13 | 46 | 7.4 |
| Oct | 20 | 20 | 10 | 68 | 4.8 |
| Nov | 14 | 14 | 6 | 85 | 3.2 |
| Dec | 10 | 10 | 3 | 80 | 2.5 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (28 m) with the standard lapse rate. Not a forecast.
Photographs
Inside and around.
Recent years
Wet years, dry years.
Rain of each month as a share of the 1991–2020 average. A dry year means a lower river and hotter rock; a wet one, more water in the gorge.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 67% | 85% | 137% | 126% | 176% | 137% | 9% | 111% | 157% | 240% | 22% | 235% |
| 2021 | 110% | 117% | 25% | 33% | 133% | 249% | 91% | 45% | 113% | 41% | 61% | 114% |
| 2022 | 38% | 55% | 59% | 90% | 24% | 152% | 8% | 42% | 77% | 62% | 117% | 66% |
| 2023 | 102% | 67% | 103% | 78% | 68% | 167% | 46% | 67% | 141% | 184% | 193% | 146% |
| 2024 | 55% | 167% | 184% | 80% | 177% | 134% | 56% | 98% | 249% | 123% | 52% | 71% |
| 2025 | 94% | 48% | 28% | 58% | 34% | 28% | 29% | 32% | 40% | 44% | 53% | 34% |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Caves nearby.
Pair-non-Pair
France
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 28 mEntrance altitude
- 14 °CInside, all year
Font-de-Gaume cave
France · 121 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 91 mEntrance altitude
- 13 °CInside, all year
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q1643799) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| The relief above, the entrance altitude, the section and the 3D model | Copernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA |
| River flow and basin | HydroATLAS / RiverATLAS v1.0 (Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 |
| Climate | NASA POWER, 1991–2020 |
| Entrances, springs, sinkholes, opening hours and what is around | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
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