Dennis Bakhuis

Dive site · cave · The Quercy causses

🇫🇷 Fontaine Saint-Georges

Montvalent, Lot, France · part of Système de Padirac

Where the underground river of the Gouffre de Padirac comes back to the surface — proved by a dye trace in 1947 that took 114 days to arrive.

Dives here
9
Deepest
29.4 m
Water
fresh
First · last
2018 · 2022
Getting in
Turn off D 840 here; the site is about 0.4 km further on an unpaved track. (44.8927, 1.6196)
Also known as
Fontaine de Saint George · Saint-Georges · St. George · St. Georges

Revision 1 · changed 10 Oct 2026

History
  1. r1 10 Oct 2026 Imported from the personal log · Dennis Bakhuis

Site data © divelog-sites contributors (ODbL), descriptions and maps CC BY-SA 4.0 · 53edcaf

1 map

Fontaine Saint-Georges↓10 m↓28 m↓21 mp.100 m↓20 m↓19 m↓15 mp.200 m↓9 mJumpT p.256 m↓11 mp.300 m↓14 m↓14 m↓15 mT p.373 m↓14 m↓4 m↓3 mRestriction p.413 m↓7 m↓5 m↓11 mp.500 m↓10 m↓8 m↓5 mT p.552 m↓11 mp.600 m↓15 m↓11 m↓9 m↓8 m↓6 mp.700 m↓6 m↓6 mT p.749 m↓7 mp.800 m↓3 m↓4 m↓3 m↓3 mJump p.895 mp.900 m↓5 m↓6 m↓10 m↓12 m↓13 m↓24 mp.1000 m↓34 m↓48 m↓53 mp.1100 m↓72 m↓75 m↓74 m↓68 mp.1200 m↓68 m↓53 m↓50 m↓46 mp.1300 m↓46 m↓42 mp.1400 m↓39 m↓30 m↓24 mp.1500 m↓9 m↓3 mEnd of sump 2, p.1535 mLine up to the avenBuoy, Salle de LavaurSilt screw, exit on silt onlyLine to rock above surfaceLake, line tied below surfaceN20 m
  • Entrance
  • T
  • Jump
  • Restriction
  • End of line
  • Air
  • Shoreline
  • Jump (no line)
  • Depth
  • Along the line
Stick map · 84 stations · 1491 m of line · max 75 m

Plan of Sump 1 and Sump 2 of the Fontaine Saint-Georges from the headpool to the lake at the end of Sump 2 (p.1535 m), traced from the Project Baseline survey (S. Clark et al., 2012-2014, v1.2, 1:1000) published on plongeesout.ffspeleo.fr. Depths are the survey's depths to the cave floor at the nearest station; penetration labels are distances from the headpool surface. The drawing keeps the survey's orientation, rotated 13 degrees counter-clockwise from true north. The owner's dives stayed in Sump 1: past the T at p.256 m (line up to the aven) to about 310 m, short of the Salle de Lavaur; positions are approximate.

The Gouffre de Padirac is one of the great show caves of France: a 75 m open shaft into a river cave, running boats along an underground stream since 1899. Everybody could see the river go in. Nobody could prove where it came out.

In 1947 they poured 75 kg of fluorescein into the Lac des Grands Gours, deep inside Padirac, and waited. The dye appeared at the Fontaine Saint-Georges, on the Dordogne at Montvalent, on 14 November — 114 days later. That single measurement established the Système de Padirac and gave the region its first proof of how far and how slowly water moves under a causse.

The fountain itself is the diving entrance to the downstream end of that river. Nine dives.

plongeesout.ffspeleo.fr currently reports diving at Saint-Georges prohibited pending works.

Dived here with

Benjamin Daan Dick Dirk Erik Hanna JP Saskia Xavier

Nearby sites

9 dives at Fontaine Saint-Georges

Dives per year

Water temperature by month

Mean water temperature in °C; an empty month had no dives.

Mean water temperature per month at Fontaine Saint-Georges
MonthMeanDives
Januaryno dives0
Februaryno dives0
Marchno dives0
Aprilno dives0
Mayno dives0
Juneno dives0
Julyno dives0
Augustno dives0
September12.3 °C3
Octoberno dives0
Novemberno dives0
Decemberno dives0
  1. 13 Sept 2022 with Benjamin cave date13 Sept 2022 depth28.5 m time102 min water12 °C
  2. 13 Sept 2022 with Benjamin cave date13 Sept 2022 depth29.1 m time74 min water12 °C
  3. 20 Sept 2020 with Erik cave date20 Sept 2020 depth28.4 m time53 min water13 °C
  4. 9 Oct 2019 with Dick, Dirk cave date9 Oct 2019 depth28.6 m time38 min water—
  5. 9 Oct 2019 with Dick, Dirk cave date9 Oct 2019 depth28.4 m time31 min water—
  6. 19 Aug 2019 with Xavier cave date19 Aug 2019 depth28.3 m time58 min water—
  7. 19 Aug 2019 with Hanna, Saskia cavetraining date19 Aug 2019 depth28.3 m time63 min water—
  8. 25 Apr 2019 with Erik, Saskia cavetraining date25 Apr 2019 depth29.4 m time52 min water—
  9. 3 Oct 2018 with Daan, JP cave date3 Oct 2018 depth28.5 m time20 min water—

Sources

  • First-hand observation (Dennis Bakhuis)