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Grotte de Lombrives
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Grotte de Lombrives

One of Europe's largest caves

From the 2014 guide – ThomasA few tens of kilometres south of Foix, on the way towards Ax and Andorra a few km south of Tarascon, there's a cave system with the Lombrives and Niaux caves. There are Stone Age paintings in Niaux. In Lombrives King Henry's signature is still there.

The cave at Ussat-les-Bains is 7–8 kilometres long – 14 kilometres if you include the connected systems at Niaux and Sabart – and its largest chamber, the Cathedral, is around 80 metres high. A little train covers the 1.4 kilometres from the ticket office to the entrance. On one wall, Henri IV's name is carved from a visit in 1578. Legend has it that Princess Pyrène, who gave the mountains their name, is buried here, and the story goes that 500 Cathars were walled up in the cave in 1328 – that is legend, not history. Some summers there are evening performances inside the mountain. For the cave paintings, see neighbouring Niaux.

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42.8248° N, 1.6178° E

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