The peculiar “Giant’s Cave” in Saillon where the hot spring adds an exotic touch to this hidden gem full of history – VS

Yesterday we did a super nice bike ride around the town of Saillon in Valais.

Luckily we got lost while trying to reach the suspended bridge named “La Passerelle à Farinet”.

Yes!!!; luckily as we came across the “Grotte du Géant” and the gorges de La Salentze.

This place is not only beautiful, but it’s full of history too.

In 1869, the “Der Bund” newspaper published an article about the discovery of a rock that looked like a monstrous head near the thermal springs of Saillon in Valais.

Over the centuries, the Salentze river has carved these magnificent gorges where a hot and slightly iodized spring gushes out of the rocks at 20° C.

This is also the starting point of a 1km long via ferrata accessible to the more adventurous ones.

It was here that Gustave Courbet painted the famous painting “The Cave of the Giants”. It is also here that Farinet, a 19th century counterfeiter, found refuge to escape the police, dying in 1880.

Some interesting facts about Gustave Courbet:
👉French of origin, he exiled in Switzerland to escape prison, and found refuge in Saillon in 1873.
👉Accused of having overthrown the Vendôme column in Paris, he was ordered to raise it again at his own expense.
👉After his stay in Saillon, he moved to La Tour de Peilz (few minutes from our house) where he died in 1877 before paying his debt to the French government.