Grotte marine de la Piade n°1 - Entrée Est

The cave opens through a large porch (east entrance) 25 metres wide, 13 metres high and 35 metres long. At the other end, a grotte marine (west entrance) opens at the back of a large porch 55 metres wide, 30 metres high and 20 metres long. The two main directions of the cavity appear to agree with the two faults that bound the block of limestone in which the cave develops[ref]Guillaume CHARDIN - CDS83, Fichier des cavités du Var > "Grotte marine de la Piade n°1" (numéro 2062001) : https://www.fichiertopo.fr/display.php?details=1&indexid=2250[/ref].

The cavity develops in Triassic Muschelkalk limestone.

At the end of the cave, at a depth of only 0.5 metre, a sump (-1 m) starts; it was crossed by breath-hold diving by daring divers and resurfaces less than 20 metres further on in a grotte marine (west entrance).

The east entrance can only be reached by swimming or by boat. The cave is also the endpoint of the climbing traverse known as La Piade, opened by Patrick Eldinger and starting from the beach below the fort de Sainte-Marguerite; on this traverse one passes in front of the large porch of the west entrance.

Sources: article from the collaborative French-language encyclopedia Wikipédia > "Muschelkalk" : https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trias_moyen ; Guillaume CHARDIN - CDS83, Fichier des cavités du Var > "Grotte marine de la Piade n°1" (numéro 2062001) : https://www.fichiertopo.fr/display.php?details=1&indexid=2250 (dead link).