Caves around Annecy, France

I had a chance to visit Lac d'Annecy and surroundings last weekend. It is a wonderful area, much closer to nature than the bustling megacity Geneve nearby. Lakes, mountains, and .. caves! Visited three very different caves, Grotte du Grand Pertuis that was only reachable by boat from the lake, Grotte de l'ermitage by high up above the lake and under a church (where the founder of the monastery and church lived for 40 years), and finally closer to Geneve and on the mountains, Grotte du Diable, a mud-infested pit of the devil. Very nice!

Video:

The Grotte du Grand Pertuis cave is in Talloires-Montmin, coordinates N 45.841638 E 6.194382. It is the cave that can only be reached by a boat. The cave is a crack in an inside corner of the massive cliff covering this side of the lake.

You can drive the boat all the way to the cave.

Photos: 

There were also small other rock holes, like this one with some kayakers camping in:

By the way, on the way on the lake be sure to stop around these coordinates N 45.833635 E 6.206131 to check out the remains of pillars for an ancient village from the times when the lake level was lower.  See more information here. Here's a picture of the water ... there's a pillar right under that reflection, trust me :-)

The next cave was Grotte de l'Ermitage, the one under the church. It is also in Talloires-Montmin, coordinates N 45.841974 E 6.222744.

There's a church, a chapel, and just under the church goes a small road. Few tens of meters forward on that road there's a path that leads downwards. The cave is there.

Saint Hermain, the founder of the church, lived as a hermit in this solitary spot for the last forty years of his life. The site has been visited by pilgrims for a thousand years.

On the path there are rock pillars, stations. The stations represent the painful journey that Jesus walked towards the Calvary.

Photos of the cave: 

The church and surroundings:

And a map:

I also scanned the cave, here's a GLB file for the 3D model, a rotate-on-your-browser link, a PDF for the map, and a picture of the plan view part of the map:

The final cave was the devil's mud-infested hole, Grotte du Diable in Le Sappey, just south of Geneve, coordinates N 46.088003 E 6.135531.

Photos, first the entrance and the main room:

Then a set of mud holes (that I did not crawl into):

Views to the outside:

Signage:

Again, I scanned the cave using my iPhone's LiDAR Scanner. Here's the resulting 3D model in GLB format, a PDF of the map I generated from it, a rotate-on-your-browser link, and a picture of the plan view part of the map:

If you visit here, check out also the ruins of the old restaurant (?), in these coordinates: N 46.088700 E 6.134722. This is also where you can park for the cave. 

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Read the full Planetskier series at planetskier.net, urban exploration stories from theurbanexplorer.net, and other underground stories from planetcaver.net, or all blog articles from Blogspot, TGR. Photos and text (c) 2025 by Jari Arkko, except where otherwise indicated. All rights reserved.