France Show cave
Choranche cave
10 °C inside, all year.
Bautsch · CC0
The descent
The entrance, at 725 m.
The real relief above Choranche cave, 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.
725m
Entrance altitude
from the 30 m relief model
10°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
505m
Rock above
the highest point within 1.5 km
Inside and outside
10 °C inside, all year.
Deep inside, a cave keeps the average temperature of the year outside: about 10 °C here, in January and in August. In July the afternoon reaches 25 °C at the entrance, 15 °C warmer than inside: take a jacket.
- 5°-3°Jan
- 6°-3°Feb
- 11°0°Mar
- 15°4°Apr
- 18°8°May
- 23°12°Jun
- 25°14°Jul
- 25°13°Aug
- 21°9°Sep
- 17°6°Oct
- 10°2°Nov
- 6°-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.
Cave in France
Choranche cave is a show cave in France. The entrance is at 725 m. It has stalactites and stalagmites. It is open to visitors.
Getting there.
- Show cave: open to visitorsticket requiredOfficial site↗
- Pont-en-Royansnearest town · 4.7 km in a straight line
- Parking 370 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Viewpointsnearest viewpoint · 0.2 km from the entrance
- Grenoble Alpes Isère Airport (GNB)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 33 km in a straight lineCar hire at GNB airport (Grenoble)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.
- 10other cave entrances within 3 kmGrotte de Pra l'Étang, Grotte de Coufin-Chevaline, Grotte et lac de Gournier and 7 more
- 1springs within 2 km
- 1caving clubs and spots within 15 kmLa Fabrik Vertaco
- 18viewpoints within 3 kmBelvedere du Ranc, Cascade du Moulin Marquis and 16 more
- 76marked hiking routes within 3 kmSentier de découverte de Prélétang, Tour du Vercors à pied and 74 more
- 10climbing crags within 3 kmDaladom, Dalle de Télébus, Eliane and 7 more
- 4named waterfalls within 4 kmCascade Blanche, Cascade de Moulin Marquis, Cascade de Gournier and 1 more
- 18car parks within 2 km
- 8information boards and visitor centres within 3 km
- 18bus stops within 2 km
- 12campsites within 8 kmCamping Chez la Mère Michon, Camping Les Portes Saint-Martin, La Ferme du Clos and 9 more
- 35hotels and guesthouses within 8 kmHôtel du Musée, Gazon, Hôtel du Royans and 32 more
- 5restaurants and cafés within 3 km
- sinkholes within 3 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
- Pont-en-Royans4.7 km in a straight line
- Saint-Romans7.3 km in a straight line
- Saint-Laurent-en-Royans7.8 km in a straight line
- Saint-Just-de-Claix9.0 km in a straight line
- Saint-Sauveur9.5 km in a straight line
- Saint-Jean-en-Royans10 km in a straight line
- Saint-Marcellin10 km in a straight line
- Chatte12 km in a straight line
In our other atlases
What else is around Choranche cave.
The river at the entrance, the waterfalls, the lakes, the mountains and volcanoes above, the canyons, beaches and islands nearby — from our other atlases.
Riveryas1 rivers at the entrance
Cascadyas2 waterfalls within 5 km
Peakyas9 mountains within 10 kmFigures 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 | 5 | 6 | 11 | 15 | 18 | 23 | 25 | 25 | 21 | 17 | 10 | 6 |
| Afternoon | 5 | 6 | 11 | 15 | 18 | 23 | 25 | 25 | 21 | 17 | 10 | 6 |
| Night | -3 | -3 | 0 | 4 | 8 | 12 | 14 | 13 | 9 | 6 | 2 | -2 |
| Rain (mm) | 70 | 57 | 68 | 65 | 88 | 65 | 56 | 58 | 67 | 85 | 100 | 77 |
| Rainy days | 11 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 14 | 12 | 10 | 9 | 10 | 12 | 13 | 12 |
| Sun hours/day | 2.7 | 4.0 | 5.8 | 6.9 | 7.4 | 9.4 | 9.8 | 8.6 | 7.0 | 4.7 | 2.9 | 2.3 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 17 | 15 | 12 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 10 | 15 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 5 | 5 | -3 | 70 | 2.7 |
| Feb | 6 | 6 | -3 | 57 | 4.0 |
| Mar | 11 | 11 | 0 | 68 | 5.8 |
| Apr | 15 | 15 | 4 | 65 | 6.9 |
| May | 18 | 18 | 8 | 88 | 7.4 |
| Jun | 23 | 23 | 12 | 65 | 9.4 |
| Jul | 25 | 25 | 14 | 56 | 9.8 |
| Aug | 25 | 25 | 13 | 58 | 8.6 |
| Sep | 21 | 21 | 9 | 67 | 7.0 |
| Oct | 17 | 17 | 6 | 85 | 4.7 |
| Nov | 10 | 10 | 2 | 100 | 2.9 |
| Dec | 6 | 6 | -2 | 77 | 2.3 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (725 m) with the standard lapse rate. Not a forecast.
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 | 52% | 90% | 97% | 68% | 90% | 151% | 28% | 119% | 117% | 142% | 35% | 163% |
| 2021 | 150% | 79% | 49% | 122% | 144% | 115% | 172% | 88% | 108% | 117% | 74% | 162% |
| 2022 | 37% | 71% | 30% | 85% | 36% | 101% | 19% | 79% | 160% | 53% | 145% | 154% |
| 2023 | 46% | 16% | 109% | 87% | 92% | 186% | 46% | 75% | 76% | 168% | 119% | 155% |
| 2024 | 108% | 104% | 199% | 104% | 157% | 159% | 104% | 48% | 193% | 141% | 44% | 104% |
| 2025 | 116% | 39% | 57% | 78% | 50% | 46% | 68% | 62% | 105% | 86% | 69% | 40% |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Caves nearby.
Choranche cave
France
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 725 mEntrance altitude
- 10 °CInside, all year
Gouffre Berger
France · 23 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 1,458 mEntrance altitude
- 5 °CInside, all year
Caves of Thaïs
France · 12 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 170 mEntrance altitude
- 13 °CInside, all year
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q3117251) · 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?
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