Cascades du Sautadet

La Roque-sur-Cèze

The Sautadet falls owe their spectacular relief to the carving out, over some five million years, of a limestone plateau by the Cèze: the swirling motion of the pebbles has sculpted veritable giant's kettles, cylindrical cavities several metres across, while the river tumbles down in successive steps through a drop of up to 15 m. The site is known locally as "the devil's leap", and an Occitan saying, "Quau vai a La Ròca, se i cròca" ("whoever goes to La Roque gets caught there"), often rendered in French as "à La Roque, le diable s'y croque", recalls the many bathing accidents that have occurred over the generations in these deceptively calm pools. In 1881, a weir was built upstream to drive a fulling and corn mill on the left bank, which remained in operation until around 1900; the flood of September 2002 damaged part of this structure and exposed the stone foundations of its old machinery. The Occitan etymology of "Sautadet" ("little water-leap") stands against a recent popular explanation, historically unattested, which would see in it a "leap of Hades" linked to the underground crevasses where floods can reach a thousand cubic metres per second.

Getting there : Commune of La Roque-sur-Cèze, one of the Plus Beaux Villages de France, about 40 km from Avignon; waymarked path starting from the twelve-arched medieval bridge; swimming strictly forbidden because of the currents

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

Ambient sound