Basalt flow, natural and volcanic UNESCO heritage in Jaujac

Opening : All year round.

Famous causeways and columns with blue basalt prisms. On the banks of the Lignon, this gigantic flow seems to want to drown us creating impressive gorges looking like organ pipes. It is said to be the most beautiful in Europe.

The Jaujac lava flow rests partly on the Prades-Jaujac coalfield (an area characterised by the presence of carbonic rocks) and partly on the crystalline basement. At the end of its course, it followed the course of the Lignon, which reformed its bed by incising the flow, revealing the basaltic prisms. The different levels of the organ formation (true colonnade, entablature and false colonnade) are clearly visible from the riverbed. Upstream of Jaujac, different types of rock can be seen on either side of the river: on the left bank, the basaltic organs from the flow, and on the right bank, the metamorphic rocks, which are rocks that have changed composition after a change in initial temperature. From Jaujac onwards, on the right bank there is the lava flow, and on the left bank the metamorphic basement. The lava flow, blocked downstream by the Souilhol, flowed back a few metres into the Motte stream, and basaltic organs can also be seen there. The beaches are made up of alluvium, large granite boulders and migmatites from the Lignon watershed, carried by the river.

You can easily observe this from the picturesque village of Jaujac, with easy, direct access to its Turbine beach, ideal for walks, picnics or swimming in season. This site is known as a geosite at the UNESCO.