53307SWE
Saumur, Gouffre de Oadurac, Rocamadour
Routes
Gouffre de Padirac – guided visit of the caves
- Check your voucher for the time of your visit at Padirac
- Call ahead to check if they accept card or cash.
- Tell the group to have sweaters with them, the temperature in the cave is a constant 12°C (53°F) It is drippy so a thin rain jacket is useful.
- There are lots of stairs, with elevators covering some.
- Time permitting, try to fit in a visit to Oradour. Incredible moving and humbling experience. Allow 1hr to visit and add 30mins drive time
Gouffre de Padirac – headset guided visit
Arrive and set down in the bus park. Walk group up to the entrance on the left where you find toilets. Main entrance is around to the left, but sometimes a group entrance is opened on the right opposite the entrance for the toilets. Give plenty of time to check which! Pay for tickets and collect headsets for tour. They activate automatically as you walk by certain points.
Gouffre de Padirac Bus Parking:
The visit starts with a descent by lift and you are led very clearly through the rest of the visit by headsets which react to where you are standing. There is a boat ride on the underground lake. Guides give commentary and the last part of the visit takes you on foot through two further caves.
You see amazing underground lakes and rock formations and this will be a highlight of your trip. There’s a great little gift shop up at ground level.
Oradour-sur-Glane
Oradour is a historic village left as a memorial by de Gaulle to the 642 French men, women, and children alike, massacred on the 10th June 1944 in this village. See TM notes. Your group can walk around the deserted village. All the women and children were gathered and locked in the church to which was eventually set fire. The men were gathered separately before and were either executed by bullets, or for many, burnt alive, and shot in the legs in the meantime so they could not escape, dying in the most atrocious pain.
Take N 141 westwards of Limoges. Then D9 to Oradour-sur-Glane. Allow 1 hour for the visit and add 30 mins to driving times.
Nowadays it is a ghost town. Ruins of what made everyday life 70 years ago remain. It can be quite a shock.
There is a large free car/bus park up above. You then walk the group down to the main entrance/reception where there is also a book/souvenir shop.
Oradour-Sur-Glane Bus Parking:
Entrance to village is free. There is a small fee to visit the museum (student rates available) but you may only have time to visit the village. Toilets are located on the left before going through to the village.
Please ensure that the group respect the quietness of this place (as they would at St. Laurent). There is no particular route to take in the village, however it is worth offering to lead/point out the underground memorial near the cemetery (the room is small so don’t try and get a group of 30 in there in one go) and the church at the bottom of the street (see map). Here, you will find all the names of those burnt. They are listed in families and give their ages. There is also a substantial collection of many items recovered.
If you decide to do the visit, you could eat in the new village of Oradour (next to the destroyed memorial village). It has restaurants and cafes. Closed on Monday.