Auvergne


The Auvergne is a region of France, located almost in the center of the country. It is famous for its mountain ranges and dormant volcanoes. The Puy de Dôme (1,465 m asl) is the highest volcano in the region, in total there are about 80 volcanoes. This is the reason why this area actually has no show caves, there is no limestone and thus no karstification. The only cave of touristic relevance we found is a tiny lava cave. The departement Puy de Dôme has only eight such caves, and they are all very small, the longest is 66 m long.

On the other hand there are numerous resources, and as a result a lot of mining related sites, the show mines include coal, lead, tin, silver, and many others. The second important group of sites is artificial, but the subterranea are quite heterogenous, there are cave houses, water supply, underground museums, and even a cave replica.