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Natural wonders · Pyrénées-Orientales
Les Orgues d'Ille sur Têt
"Les Orgues" are strange rock formations eroded by time and shaped like chimneys.
View full page →The most unusual places in France
Fairy chimneys, rocks sculpted by erosion, a giant arch, a forest of stones, catacombs: France has natural and curious sites that lie outside the usual circuits.
This selection brings together astonishing landscapes, rare geological formations and a few curiosities: the Orgues d'Ille-sur-Têt, the Pénitents des Mées, the Robines du Liman, the chaos of Nîmes-le-Vieux and the hollow oak of Allouville-Bellefosse.
Many are off the main tourist roads: a good reason to plan an itinerary and favour good shoes.
16selected sites
8regions
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Natural wonders · Alpes-de-Haute-Provence
Les pénitents des Mées
This walk will let you discover a curiosity visible from the Sisteron-Aix motorway or the N85 road.
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Natural wonders · Alpes-de-Haute-Provence
Les Robines du Liman
Robines are hills of black marl sculpted by erosion. When the ground is soaked, the reflections of light on these dark harmonies create violent contrasts.
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Natural wonders · Lozère
Le Chaos de Nîmes le Vieux
It is true that this group of ruin-shaped rocks can be deceptive.
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Natural wonders · Ardèche
Bois de Paiolive
The Bois de Païolive (holm and downy oaks) is an aged private forest that therefore holds exceptional richness in insects, particularly beetles, for which entomologists and collectors travel from all over Europe.
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Natural wonders · Ardèche
Arche de pont d'Arc
34 metres high and 59 metres wide at water level, the Pont d'Arc is a superb natural arch in the heart of the Ardèche, near Vallon-Pont-d'Arc.
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Natural wonders · Vaucluse
Colorado Provençal
Former open-air ochre quarries, worked until 1992, forming a landscape of blazing colours reminiscent of American canyons.
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Natural wonders · Hautes-Alpes
Les Demoiselles de Théus
Under the name of capped lady (demoiselle coiffée) or fairy chimney, strange-shaped reliefs lie hidden.
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Natural wonders · Hautes-Alpes
La casse déserte
You can also follow the road that leads to the Col de l'Izoard and the lunar setting of the Casse Déserte, then to the wild defile of the Combe du Queyras.
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Natural wonders · Drôme
Crevasses de Chantemerle
Curious, I would have no other word to define this natural phenomenon that is the formation of this crevasse.
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Natural wonders · Aisne
La Hottée de Gargantua
A rocky chaos about ten metres high with surprising shapes. According to legend: Gargantua empties his basket and creates the mountain on which the town of Laon is built.
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Natural wonders · Indre-et-Loire
Les Rochers de Courçay
On the banks of the Indre, you will discover the admirable immaculate rocks of Courçay and the pure waters of the Doué. You can also reach the Doué resurgence, which scatters its limpid waters into a basin.
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Natural wonders · Seine-Maritime
Chêne d'Allouville-Bellefosse
Planted, according to tradition, nearly a thousand years ago, this pedunculate oak standing in the church square of Allouville-Bellefosse is one of the most famous trees in France.
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Monuments · Ille-et-Vilaine
Rochers Scuptés de Rothéneuf
Five kilometres from Saint-Malo, following the sea towards Cancale, the Sculpted Rocks of Rothéneuf form a strange world, peopled with characters from another time: the grimacing figures shaped by the hand of man evoke medieval gargoyles and the beings…
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Natural wonders · Manche
Les moines et l'Elèphant
52 islets, 365 rocks at low tide (one for every day!), Chausey is an archipelago unique in France, once well known for its granite that built Saint-Malo, Fécamp, Paris and London!
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Natural wonders · Paris
Catacombes de Paris
An underground ossuary developed at the end of the eighteenth century in former quarries, where the bones of several million Parisians are carefully stacked.
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