Photo : Entomolo / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
La Brèche du Diable
The Brèche au Diable is in the commune of Soumont-Saint-Quentin, in Calvados, about 9 km north of Falaise, at the foot of Mont-Joly. The Laizon has pierced a passage there through the hills of Armorican sandstone, in a wooded gorge with steep walls. The site includes two rocky outcrops overlooking the river and has been listed since 1974.
It was occupied very early: rock shelters and polishing stones have been discovered there, with traces of occupation from the Palaeolithic to the Neolithic. According to legend, the devil split the plateau to open access to the church of Saint-Quentin. A path runs along the gorge before climbing to the plateaux of the Falaise plain; its rugged nature, slippery in wet weather, calls for good shoes. The very hard sandstone also offers about 75 climbing routes.
