France Cave with prehistoric art
Marche cave
12 °C inside, all year.
Ebbblue · CC BY-SA 3.0
The descent
The entrance, at 96 m.
The real relief above Marche 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.
96m
Entrance altitude
from the 30 m relief model
12°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
54m
Rock above
the highest point within 1.5 km
Inside and outside
12 °C inside, all year.
Deep inside, a cave keeps the average temperature of the year outside: about 12 °C here, in January and in August. In August the afternoon reaches 27 °C at the entrance, 15 °C warmer than inside: take a jacket. The best months to escape the heat are in August.
- 7°1°Jan
- 8°1°Feb
- 12°3°Mar
- 16°6°Apr
- 19°9°May
- 24°13°Jun
- 27°15°Jul
- 27°14°Aug
- 24°11°Sep
- 18°8°Oct
- 12°4°Nov
- 8°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
Marche cave is a cave with prehistoric art in France. The entrance is at 96 m. It is closed to the public to protect it.
Getting there.
- No public accessProtected for science or for its art. Look for a replica or a visitor centre nearby.
- Lussac-les-Châteauxnearest town · 0.3 km in a straight line
- Viewpointsnearest viewpoint · 0.1 km from the entrance
- Poitiers-Biard Airport (PIS)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 38 km in a straight lineCar hire at LIG airport (Limoges/Bellegarde)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.
- 4other cave entrances within 3 kmGrotte des Fadets, Abri sous roche de la Tannerie, Abri sous roche de l'Ermitage and 1 more
- 1viewpoints within 3 km
- 1marked hiking routes within 3 kmDe La Ribière à Chinon
- 51car parks within 2 km
- 10information boards and visitor centres within 3 km
- 3bus stops within 2 km
- 5campsites within 8 kmAire de camping-car Lussac-les-Châteaux, Aire de camping, Camping Municipal Les Tuileries and 2 more
- 4hotels and guesthouses within 8 kmLe Montespan, Sur les Terres de GROS BOST, Les Orangeries and 1 more
- 3restaurants and cafés within 3 km
- springs within 2 km
- sinkholes within 3 km
- caving clubs and spots within 15 km
- climbing crags within 3 km
- named waterfalls within 4 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
- Lussac-les-Châteaux0.3 km in a straight line
- Montmorillon11 km in a straight line
- Saulgé12 km in a straight line
- Tercé17 km in a straight line
- Chauvigny19 km in a straight line
- Lathus-Saint-Rémy20 km in a straight line
- Saint-Savin21 km in a straight line
- Usson-du-Poitou21 km in a straight line
Month by month
The weather outside, at the entrance.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afternoon | 7 | 8 | 12 | 16 | 19 | 24 | 27 | 27 | 24 | 18 | 12 | 8 |
| Afternoon | 7 | 8 | 12 | 16 | 19 | 24 | 27 | 27 | 24 | 18 | 12 | 8 |
| Night | 1 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 13 | 15 | 14 | 11 | 8 | 4 | 2 |
| Rain (mm) | 72 | 54 | 66 | 60 | 77 | 67 | 53 | 53 | 45 | 75 | 74 | 77 |
| Rainy days | 13 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 11 | 10 | 9 | 10 | 13 | 14 | 13 |
| Sun hours/day | 2.2 | 3.8 | 5.2 | 6.6 | 7.2 | 8.5 | 8.8 | 7.9 | 7.1 | 4.4 | 2.8 | 2.1 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 5 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 7 | 7 | 1 | 72 | 2.2 |
| Feb | 8 | 8 | 1 | 54 | 3.8 |
| Mar | 12 | 12 | 3 | 66 | 5.2 |
| Apr | 16 | 16 | 6 | 60 | 6.6 |
| May | 19 | 19 | 9 | 77 | 7.2 |
| Jun | 24 | 24 | 13 | 67 | 8.5 |
| Jul | 27 | 27 | 15 | 53 | 8.8 |
| Aug | 27 | 27 | 14 | 53 | 7.9 |
| Sep | 24 | 24 | 11 | 45 | 7.1 |
| Oct | 18 | 18 | 8 | 75 | 4.4 |
| Nov | 12 | 12 | 4 | 74 | 2.8 |
| Dec | 8 | 8 | 2 | 77 | 2.1 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (96 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 | 77% | 110% | 132% | 93% | 104% | 108% | 8% | 70% | 106% | 153% | 32% | 156% |
| 2021 | 97% | 118% | 33% | 31% | 102% | 150% | 109% | 33% | 89% | 41% | 47% | 104% |
| 2022 | 35% | 48% | 38% | 73% | 22% | 123% | 41% | 51% | 109% | 67% | 86% | 66% |
| 2023 | 92% | 37% | 107% | 53% | 60% | 115% | 64% | 60% | 118% | 154% | 147% | 114% |
| 2024 | 57% | 136% | 158% | 83% | 156% | 100% | 49% | 36% | 201% | 145% | 64% | 58% |
| 2025 | 109% | 44% | 34% | 60% | 15% | 23% | 36% | 44% | 67% | 45% | 47% | 34% |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Caves nearby.
Marche cave
France
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 96 mEntrance altitude
- 12 °CInside, all year
Fontéchevade cave
France · 83 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 131 mEntrance altitude
- 13 °CInside, all year
Grotte du Visage
France · 84 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 130 mEntrance altitude
- 13 °CInside, all year
Montgaudier cave
France · 84 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 116 mEntrance altitude
- 13 °CInside, all year
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q3117136) · 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 |
Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
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