Cascade de la Beaume

Solignac-sur-Loire

On the edge of the volcanic plateau of the Devès, the Ourzie stream abruptly leaves the meadows to leap over a basalt cliff: 27 metres of white ribbon breaking into an amphitheatre of dark columns, in the heart of the Agizoux forest. Many hold it to be the most beautiful waterfall in Haute-Loire. Its name comes from the Latin balma, "the cave": at the foot of the basalt organ-pipes, the lava flows have left rock shelters occupied since prehistoric times, and the whole valley bears this old word for a cavern. Local tradition attaches a singular story to the fall: a lord's daughter, convinced she had seen the devil's reflection in the water, had lost her reason; a young goatherd cured her by declaring that he could see the Virgin at the foot of the waterfall and drawing her with him into the void — Mary, so it is told, slowed their fall, the young lady recovered her wits and married her rescuer. The ending is best left to fireside storytellers, but the place has everything of a legendary setting: maritime pines surprisingly clinging on at this altitude, elms surviving from a species all but wiped out, and that roar of water heard before it is seen. The Reynardon path descends in some twenty minutes to the foot of the fall, where the spray cools the Velay summers; a viewpoint near the road offers the plunging view. On the way back, the plateau unrolls its farms of black lava and its horizons of volcanic sucs.

Getting there : 20 minutes south of Le Puy-en-Velay by the D54, between Solignac-sur-Loire and Le Brignon. From the Reynardon car park, there-and-back path of about 40 minutes; viewpoint accessible near the D54; 10.5 km loop (2 h 50) starting from Solignac. Take care in wet weather: steps and a steep path at the end of the descent.

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

Ambient sound