OFFICE DE TOURISME DES LACS ET MONTS D'ARDÈCHE

Situated in the Haute Ardèche, the small village of Lac d'Issarlès is an ideal place to stay, thanks to its climate, its azure skies at the gateway to the Midi, its full range of tourist facilities and, above all, its exceptional landscape. Lac d'Issarlès is a 97-hectare natural crater lake at an altitude of 1,000 m, 138 m deep and 5 km in circumference. At the lake, you can swim in exceptionally pure water at a very pleasant temperature in complete safety (supervised bathing in summer) or relax on the sandy beach. You can also go pedal-boating, canoeing or stand-up paddling. A hiking trail takes you around the lake, where you can pick cranberries, wild strawberries, raspberries and mushrooms. Wonderful walks and mountain bike rides are available around the village, offering magnificent panoramic views of the basaltic flows of the Vallée de la Veyradeyre and the phonolithic rock. Fishermen will also be delighted: the lake abounds in brown and rainbow trout, Arctic char, salmon, minnows, gudgeon and whitefish. Near the lake, troglodyte caves were carved out of the blast products from the Maar crater. Recently restored and showcased, it's now possible to visit them and discover how they were actually laid out at the time.