aven armand cave limestone

Aven Armand is a cave in the Lozère Department in southern France, close to the Gorges de la Jonte.On entering the cave you are greeted by an animated Jules Verne announcing that for 150 years he has been ‘wowing young and old with extraordinary adventure stories, one of which imagined a journey to the centre of the earth’. It probably sets the scene for children but there is far more to this chamber than the gimmicks.The descent into the chamber is by funicular – so that makes this different from most other caves from the start. But it is the number, form and height of the stalagmites that impresses and there are over 400 of them (and yet they don’t even count those less than a metre in height!). One reaches almost 30 metres. The cave is effectively a massive chamber measuring 110 metres long by 60 metres wide with an average height of 45 metres. It was first discovered in 1897 by Louis Armand, in whose honour the cave is now named, but it was the great speleologist, Edouard-Alfred Martel, who organised the exploratory descent into the cave from a sinkhole on the surface on 19 September of that year. Public access was provided some 30 years later through a tunnel hollowed out consisting of 360 steps. In 1963 the funicular was installed using the same tunnel which had to be widened.The most effective gimmick is the image of that first descent into the chamber using rope ladders and lanterns which is projected onto the chamber walls. It gives a very strong impression of what those first explorers would have had to undertake and the risks involved in descending into the unknown.The use of coloured lighting which is constantly changing provokes a mixed response - the purists will want to study the chamber and its stalagmites in the best possible light but the colour displays are obviously set up to entertain the public at large and on balance they probably manage to enhance Aven Armand’s wow factor. The sight is something that is not easily forgotten.Aven Armand is marketed with Montpellier-le-Vieux just over the River Jonte in the Aveyron Department – see my report – and a reduced price ticket can be purchased at either venue which allows entry to both attractions.

En descend dans les profondeurs du sol lozerien, nous avons été subjugué par la beauté du lieu. La taille de salle et les sculptures de mère nature nous ont donné le vertige. Les effets proposés par les jeux de lumière donne encore plus de magie à ce site unique. Surement la visite incontournable à faire quand on est de passage dans la région, d'autant que l'équipe et les infrastructures sont chaleureuses.

superbe aven !Nous l' avons visité avec un groupe de séniors et malgré les 150 marches ils ont apprécié ce lieu magique où le nouveau programme son et lumière rajoute à la visite une touche de modernité apprécié par tous. En bref visite superbe mais un peu cher si l'on vient en famille !