France Show cave
Grotte des Planches
9 °C inside, all year.
Edesbrieres · CC BY-SA 3.0
The descent
The entrance, at 525 m.
The real relief above Grotte des Planches, 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.
525m
Entrance altitude
from the 30 m relief model
9°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
73m
Rock above
the highest point within 1.5 km
Inside and outside
9 °C inside, all year.
Deep inside, a cave keeps the average temperature of the year outside: about 9 °C here, in January and in August. In July the afternoon reaches 24 °C at the entrance, 14 °C warmer than inside: take a jacket.
- 3°-3°Jan
- 5°-3°Feb
- 9°0°Mar
- 14°4°Apr
- 18°8°May
- 22°12°Jun
- 24°13°Jul
- 24°13°Aug
- 20°9°Sep
- 15°6°Oct
- 8°1°Nov
- 4°-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.
Prehistoric and touristic cave in eastern France
Grotte des Planches is a show cave in France. The entrance is at 525 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.
- Arboisnearest town · 4.1 km in a straight line
- Parking 370 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Belvédère de la Châtelainenearest viewpoint · 0.1 km from the entrance
- Dole Tavaux Airport (DLE)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 34 km in a straight lineCar hire at GVA airport (Geneva)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.
- 5other cave entrances within 3 kmGrotte des Planches, La Cave de Nankia, Creux Coulon and 2 more
- 1springs within 2 km
- 9viewpoints within 3 kmBelvédère du Fer à Cheval, Belvédère de la Châtelaine, Le Dérochoir and 6 more
- 62marked hiking routes within 3 kmEntre Bois et Vignes, Tour du Bief de Corne and 60 more
- 1climbing crags within 3 kmArbois
- 4named waterfalls within 4 kmCascade des Boucheries, La Cascade du Dérochoir, Cascade Damandre and 1 more
- 13car parks within 2 km
- 7information boards and visitor centres within 3 km
- 5campsites within 8 kmFerme des Nouvelles, Aire Domaine Les Monts Martin, Aire Domaine Désiré Petit and 2 more
- 23hotels and guesthouses within 8 kmLou Bé Co, Carmel 1643, Castel Damandre and 20 more
- 3restaurants and cafés within 3 km
- sinkholes within 3 km
- caving clubs and spots within 15 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
- Arbois4.1 km in a straight line
- Salins-les-Bains8.8 km in a straight line
- Poligny9.7 km in a straight line
- Mouchard10 km in a straight line
- Champagnole17 km in a straight line
- Arc-et-Senans17 km in a straight line
- Mont-sous-Vaudrey20 km in a straight line
- Levier24 km in a straight line
In our other atlases
What else is around Grotte des Planches.
The river at the entrance, the waterfalls, the lakes, the mountains and volcanoes above, the canyons, beaches and islands nearby — from our other atlases.
Cascadyas1 waterfalls within 5 km
Peakyas1 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 | 3 | 5 | 9 | 14 | 18 | 22 | 24 | 24 | 20 | 15 | 8 | 4 |
| Afternoon | 3 | 5 | 9 | 14 | 18 | 22 | 24 | 24 | 20 | 15 | 8 | 4 |
| Night | -3 | -3 | 0 | 4 | 8 | 12 | 13 | 13 | 9 | 6 | 1 | -2 |
| Rain (mm) | 88 | 70 | 82 | 74 | 101 | 90 | 85 | 92 | 72 | 98 | 99 | 103 |
| Rainy days | 13 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 15 | 14 | 13 | 12 | 11 | 13 | 13 | 15 |
| Sun hours/day | 1.9 | 3.4 | 5.1 | 6.7 | 7.0 | 8.4 | 8.5 | 7.5 | 6.5 | 4.2 | 2.3 | 1.4 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 13 | 11 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 10 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 3 | 3 | -3 | 88 | 1.9 |
| Feb | 5 | 5 | -3 | 70 | 3.4 |
| Mar | 9 | 9 | 0 | 82 | 5.1 |
| Apr | 14 | 14 | 4 | 74 | 6.7 |
| May | 18 | 18 | 8 | 101 | 7.0 |
| Jun | 22 | 22 | 12 | 90 | 8.4 |
| Jul | 24 | 24 | 13 | 85 | 8.5 |
| Aug | 24 | 24 | 13 | 92 | 7.5 |
| Sep | 20 | 20 | 9 | 72 | 6.5 |
| Oct | 15 | 15 | 6 | 98 | 4.2 |
| Nov | 8 | 8 | 1 | 99 | 2.3 |
| Dec | 4 | 4 | -2 | 103 | 1.4 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (525 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 | 58% | 165% | 95% | 39% | 95% | 125% | 26% | 79% | 108% | 192% | 27% | 113% |
| 2021 | 127% | 78% | 60% | 49% | 147% | 119% | 195% | 60% | 84% | 93% | 54% | 144% |
| 2022 | 60% | 108% | 36% | 117% | 41% | 138% | 17% | 78% | 173% | 84% | 115% | 99% |
| 2023 | 94% | 19% | 135% | 120% | 64% | 64% | 83% | 90% | 76% | 190% | 202% | 123% |
| 2024 | 108% | 126% | 124% | 133% | 147% | 129% | 89% | 79% | 219% | 158% | 69% | 99% |
| 2025 | 159% | 65% | 52% | 97% | 82% | 142% | 129% | 105% | 202% | 171% | 157% | 41% |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Caves nearby.
Grotte des Planches
France
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 525 mEntrance altitude
- 9 °CInside, all year
Grotte d'Osselle
France · 29 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 234 mEntrance altitude
- 11 °CInside, all year
Vallorbe Caves
Switzerland · 45 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 851 mEntrance altitude
- 8 °CInside, all year
Gouffre de Poudrey
France · 46 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 580 mEntrance altitude
- 9 °CInside, all year
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q3117220) · 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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