Photo : TwoWings / Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)
Gouffre de Proumeyssac
The Proumeyssac chasm opens at Audrix, in the Périgord Noir, in the Vézère valley. This natural cavity about forty metres deep consists essentially of a large hall carved into yellow Upper Cretaceous limestone. Its stalactites, stalagmites and calcite pillars have earned it the nickname crystal cathedral.
In the eighteenth century, the place was already famous for the legends it inspired: the vapours escaping from it were attributed to a volcano or to the devil, and locals threw the remains of animals, even people, into it. It was first explored in 1907 by Gabriel Galou. The chasm also holds rare triangular crystallisations, known in only three French caves.
A developed tunnel now lets you enter the great hall, where the temperature stays constant, around 14 °C. There is also a petrifying fountain that covers objects placed in it, such as pottery, with limestone in about a year. The site was used as a setting for Claude Chabrol's film Le Boucher, in 1969.
