Marseille & the Calanques · France · Cave & cavern · Wall
La Grotte à Perez
A cave-cathedral above a wall that drops to 40 m
Area photo: Karim saari · CC BY 4.0
A drop to 40 metres with a small plateau at around 30, and above it a cave the size of a cathedral whose mouth runs from 25 metres up to 14 and reaches about ten metres back into the rock. The cave and the drop-off make two halves of one dive, deep first and shallow after.
Also known as Grotte à Perez.
Where it is and how deep
43.1864° N, 5.3916° EPublished position for this site.
The dive
Go deep first. The rock falls away to a maximum of 40 metres, with a small plateau at around 30 that gives you somewhere to level off and take stock before turning back up. That lower section is short by necessity, and the plan should have you leaving it while there is still plenty of gas and no-stop time for the second half of the dive above.
The cave is that second half. Its opening runs from about 25 metres up to 14, tall enough that the catalogue calls it a cave-cathedral, and it advances roughly ten metres into the rock, so it is a cavern you look into and move through rather than a passage you follow. Coming out at the shallow end of the mouth puts you at 14 metres, which is a convenient depth to start the ascent from.
Marine life and season
The sources we used don't single out particular species here.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Good | Good | Good | Good | Good | Good | Good | Good | Good | Good | Good | Good |
Season follows Marseille & the Calanques: Boats run all year; the sea averages 13 °C (55 °F) in February and feels cold.
Sources
- La Grotte à Perez — Scubago
More dive sites in Marseille & the Calanques
One rock, from 35 metres up to a 5-metre finish
Reef
Rock stacks shaped like wheels of cheese
Wreck
Deep-certified only: the 1903 liner Liban off Île Maïre
A drop-off to 25 m and a tunnel at 8 to 4 metres
A plateau off Grand Congloué that ends in a beak
Cave & cavern
A cave mouth 10 metres high and 10 metres wide
Wreck
A 70 m sailing ship on the bottom since 1897
A shallow orange freighter, a 1928 steamer and a Bf 109
Similar dives elsewhere
The Blue Cave above an abyss on Koločep's southern shore
Cave & cavern
Grotta del Camino
San Vito Lo Capo & Scopello · Italy
One cave, two doors: a mouth at 18 m and another on the wall
Walls that seem to move under thousands of massed shrimp
Cave & cavern
Agios Vasileios
Lesbos · Greece
A cave that climbs from 23 m to 12 m inside an islet wall