France Mj.galais · CC BY-SA 3.0
The descent
The entrance, at 184 m.
The real relief above Villars Cave, 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.
184m
Entrance altitude
from the 30 m relief model
12°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
44m
Rock above
the highest point within 1.5 km
Inside and outside
12 °C inside, all year.
Deep inside, a cave keeps the average temperature of the year outside: about 12 °C here, in January and in August. In July the afternoon reaches 28 °C at the entrance, 16 °C warmer than inside: take a jacket. The best months to escape the heat are from July to August.
- 7°1°Jan
- 8°0°Feb
- 12°3°Mar
- 16°6°Apr
- 20°9°May
- 25°13°Jun
- 28°15°Jul
- 28°15°Aug
- 24°11°Sep
- 18°8°Oct
- 12°4°Nov
- 8°1°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 with prehistoric art in France
Villars Cave is a show cave in France. The entrance is at 184 m. It has stalactites and stalagmites. It is open to visitors.
Getting there.
- Show cave: open to visitorsticket requiredOfficial site↗
- Saint-Pardoux-la-Rivièrenearest town · 6.6 km in a straight line
- Parking 160 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Limoges Airport (LIG)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 56 km in a straight lineCar hire at LIG airport (Limoges/Bellegarde)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.
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.
- 1other cave entrances within 3 kmGrotte de Villars
- 1springs within 2 kmFontaine des moines
- 2car parks within 2 km
- 6campsites within 8 kmCamping de St Pierre de Côle, Parenthèses Imaginaires, Aire de camping-cars Saint-Pardoux-la-Rivière and 3 more
- 3hotels and guesthouses within 8 kmDomaine de la Veyrière, Château de Villars
- 3restaurants and cafés 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
- bus stops within 2 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
- Saint-Pardoux-la-Rivière6.6 km in a straight line
- Thiviers11 km in a straight line
- Nontron14 km in a straight line
- Brantôme14 km in a straight line
- Sorges16 km in a straight line
- Agonac17 km in a straight line
- La Coquille19 km in a straight line
- Piégut-Pluviers21 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 | 7 | 8 | 12 | 16 | 20 | 25 | 28 | 28 | 24 | 18 | 12 | 8 |
| Afternoon | 7 | 8 | 12 | 16 | 20 | 25 | 28 | 28 | 24 | 18 | 12 | 8 |
| Night | 1 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 13 | 15 | 15 | 11 | 8 | 4 | 1 |
| Rain (mm) | 79 | 56 | 68 | 71 | 81 | 67 | 52 | 55 | 49 | 70 | 79 | 79 |
| Rainy days | 13 | 11 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 11 | 9 | 9 | 11 | 13 | 14 | 14 |
| Sun hours/day | 2.5 | 4.1 | 5.3 | 6.4 | 7.1 | 8.7 | 8.9 | 8.1 | 7.2 | 4.9 | 3.1 | 2.6 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 5 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 7 | 7 | 1 | 79 | 2.5 |
| Feb | 8 | 8 | 0 | 56 | 4.1 |
| Mar | 12 | 12 | 3 | 68 | 5.3 |
| Apr | 16 | 16 | 6 | 71 | 6.4 |
| May | 20 | 20 | 9 | 81 | 7.1 |
| Jun | 25 | 25 | 13 | 67 | 8.7 |
| Jul | 28 | 28 | 15 | 52 | 8.9 |
| Aug | 28 | 28 | 15 | 55 | 8.1 |
| Sep | 24 | 24 | 11 | 49 | 7.2 |
| Oct | 18 | 18 | 8 | 70 | 4.9 |
| Nov | 12 | 12 | 4 | 79 | 3.1 |
| Dec | 8 | 8 | 1 | 79 | 2.6 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (184 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 | 70% | 86% | 91% | 79% | 74% | 91% | 7% | 64% | 108% | 152% | 24% | 163% |
| 2021 | 103% | 108% | 28% | 28% | 87% | 150% | 75% | 38% | 120% | 38% | 41% | 102% |
| 2022 | 31% | 48% | 41% | 63% | 23% | 124% | 24% | 35% | 78% | 46% | 81% | 52% |
| 2023 | 71% | 34% | 97% | 54% | 49% | 131% | 41% | 57% | 94% | 150% | 145% | 165% |
| 2024 | 60% | 173% | 195% | 91% | 166% | 100% | 45% | 19% | 183% | 122% | 50% | 52% |
| 2025 | 77% | 35% | 29% | 65% | 19% | 36% | 23% | 34% | 62% | 55% | 55% | 30% |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Caves nearby.
Villars Cave
France
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 184 mEntrance altitude
- 12 °CInside, all year
Rouffignac Cave
France · 51 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 244 mEntrance altitude
- 12 °CInside, all year
Font-de-Gaume cave
France · 60 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 91 mEntrance altitude
- 13 °CInside, all year
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q177657) · 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 |
| 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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