Source de Saint-Sauveur

A deep resurgence pool near Calès that feeds the Ouysse. Its flooded gallery descends past 100 m within a few hundred metres, and a 2014 exploration reached 195 m. In 2006 the Lot département restricted diving to the pool after rockfall.

Saint-Sauveur is a broad resurgence pool in the valley below Calès, reached by a farm track from the Rocamadour–Couzou area. It is one of the springs that feed the Ouysse, which flows on to the Dordogne.

In the middle of the basin, at about 15 m, a sand-and-cobble-covered fissure drops abruptly to a restriction (a narrow passage that limits progress) at 24 m, about 60 m from the start. Beyond it the gallery widens and descends steadily, reaching about 45 m at 150 m and 68 m at 200 m, then continues as a large passage around 70 to 90 m deep with several routes and an air bell at 550 m, according to the FFS fiche.

The cave has a long and sometimes tragic exploration history. Divers first entered it in 1954; Eric and Francis Le Guen stopped at 78 m in 1980; Xavier Goyet died returning from a deep exploration dive in 1986; and through the 2000s British and French divers pushed the terminus beyond 120 m. Subaqua reported in 2014 that Xavier Méniscus extended the end by 150 m to a maximum depth of 195 m on a 13-hour dive.

On 26 June 2006 the Conseil général du Lot wrote that recent rockfall at the restriction made any exploration of the underground network dangerous, and restricted cave diving temporarily to the pool area, with exploration beyond strictly prohibited. The sources consulted do not say whether or when that restriction was lifted.

The spring feeds the Ouysse, a tributary of the Dordogne. The deep gallery lies far below the spring outlet, so most of the passage is a deep phreatic tube.

One of France's deepest explored resurgences, reached to 195 m in 2014 according to the FFESSM's magazine.

One entrance, the resurgence pool. Under the 2006 restriction only the pool area may be dived.