France Show cave
Cave Saint-Marcel-d'Ardèche
14 °C inside, all year.
Getfunky Paris · CC BY 2.0
The descent
The entrance, at 196 m.
The real relief above Cave Saint-Marcel-d'Ardèche, 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.
196m
Entrance altitude
from the 30 m relief model
14°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
94m
Rock above
the highest point within 1.5 km
Inside and outside
14 °C inside, all year.
Deep inside, a cave keeps the average temperature of the year outside: about 14 °C here, in January and in August. In July the afternoon reaches 31 °C at the entrance, 18 °C warmer than inside: take a jacket. The best months to escape the heat are from June to August.
- 8°1°Jan
- 9°1°Feb
- 14°3°Mar
- 18°7°Apr
- 22°10°May
- 27°15°Jun
- 31°17°Jul
- 30°17°Aug
- 25°13°Sep
- 19°9°Oct
- 13°5°Nov
- 9°2°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.
Show cave in France
Cave Saint-Marcel-d'Ardèche is a show cave in France. The entrance is at 196 m. It has stalactites and stalagmites. It is open to visitors.
Getting there.
- Show cave: open to visitorsUsually with a guided tour; check times and tickets on the official site.Official site↗
- Saint-Julien-de-Peyrolasnearest town · 5.2 km in a straight line
- Parking 100 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Viewpointsnearest viewpoint · 0.2 km from the entrance
- Avignon Caumont airport (AVN)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 55 km in a straight lineCar hire at FNI airport (Nîmes/Garons)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.
- 36other cave entrances within 3 kmAven de la Vigne Close, Grotte de Saint-Marcel, Aven de Noël and 33 more
- 3springs within 2 kmSource de l'Ecluse, Le Passeron, Source du Crapaud
- 1sinkholes within 3 kmAven de Louby
- 20viewpoints within 3 kmBelvédère du Ranc Pointu, Le Grand Belvedere, Balcon la Maladrerie and 17 more
- 36marked hiking routes within 3 kmDe Saint-Étienne au Grau-du-Roi, Le Rocher de Castelviel, Sentier amont des Gorges de l'Ardèche and 33 more
- 8car parks within 2 km
- 8information boards and visitor centres within 3 km
- 31campsites within 8 kmCamping sauvage, Aire de camping-cars Maison de la Lavande, Aire Domaine de L'Olivet and 28 more
- 23hotels and guesthouses within 8 kmAuberge des Gorges, Bellevue, Mas Témade and 20 more
- 7restaurants and cafés within 3 km
- caving clubs and spots within 15 km
- climbing crags within 3 km
- named waterfalls within 4 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-Julien-de-Peyrolas5.2 km in a straight line
- Saint-Marcel-d'Ardèche6.1 km in a straight line
- Saint-Just-d'Ardèche6.4 km in a straight line
- Saint-Paulet-de-Caisson8.9 km in a straight line
- Bourg-Saint-Andéol9.4 km in a straight line
- Pont-Saint-Esprit12 km in a straight line
- Lapalud12 km in a straight line
- Saint-Alexandre13 km in a straight line
In our other atlases
What else is around Cave Saint-Marcel-d'Ardèche.
The river at the entrance, the waterfalls, the lakes, the mountains and volcanoes above, the canyons, beaches and islands nearby — from our other atlases.
Figures from the sister sites' databases (Wikidata, HydroATLAS, GeoNames, NOAA, OpenStreetMap). Links open when each site is online.
Month by month
The weather outside, at the entrance.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afternoon | 8 | 9 | 14 | 18 | 22 | 27 | 31 | 30 | 25 | 19 | 13 | 9 |
| Afternoon | 8 | 9 | 14 | 18 | 22 | 27 | 31 | 30 | 25 | 19 | 13 | 9 |
| Night | 1 | 1 | 3 | 7 | 10 | 15 | 17 | 17 | 13 | 9 | 5 | 2 |
| Rain (mm) | 62 | 50 | 57 | 74 | 77 | 52 | 45 | 48 | 75 | 113 | 116 | 68 |
| Rainy days | 10 | 8 | 8 | 11 | 11 | 9 | 8 | 8 | 9 | 12 | 12 | 10 |
| Sun hours/day | 3.5 | 4.9 | 6.3 | 7.2 | 8.3 | 10.4 | 10.8 | 9.5 | 7.7 | 4.9 | 3.7 | 3.3 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 10 | 9 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 8 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 8 | 8 | 1 | 62 | 3.5 |
| Feb | 9 | 9 | 1 | 50 | 4.9 |
| Mar | 14 | 14 | 3 | 57 | 6.3 |
| Apr | 18 | 18 | 7 | 74 | 7.2 |
| May | 22 | 22 | 10 | 77 | 8.3 |
| Jun | 27 | 27 | 15 | 52 | 10.4 |
| Jul | 31 | 31 | 17 | 45 | 10.8 |
| Aug | 30 | 30 | 17 | 48 | 9.5 |
| Sep | 25 | 25 | 13 | 75 | 7.7 |
| Oct | 19 | 19 | 9 | 113 | 4.9 |
| Nov | 13 | 13 | 5 | 116 | 3.7 |
| Dec | 9 | 9 | 2 | 68 | 3.3 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (196 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 | 55% | 41% | 63% | 71% | 87% | 190% | 25% | 90% | 106% | 72% | 41% | 159% |
| 2021 | 65% | 75% | 21% | 102% | 119% | 107% | 152% | 62% | 112% | 105% | 45% | 88% |
| 2022 | 38% | 38% | 61% | 52% | 21% | 98% | 23% | 127% | 133% | 45% | 101% | 150% |
| 2023 | 31% | 32% | 62% | 36% | 86% | 176% | 35% | 42% | 67% | 98% | 57% | 73% |
| 2024 | 53% | 135% | 323% | 77% | 157% | 124% | 108% | 58% | 159% | 103% | 33% | 45% |
| 2025 | 76% | 71% | 82% | 50% | 29% | 29% | 42% | 49% | 41% | 29% | 39% | 115% |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Caves nearby.
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q1837168) · 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 |
| Rivers, waterfalls, lakes, mountains, canyons, beaches and islands nearby | Coastya, Lakeyas, Peakyas, Cascadyas, Islandyas, Riveryas |
Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
The family
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers, canyons, caves, dark skies, viewpoints, birdwatching or forests?
Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.






