Arpenaz, La Cascade d'
   Haute-Savoie, France

La Cascade d'Arpenaz is France's answer to Switzerland's famous Staubbachfall. The falls drop a total of just under 1200 feet, the largest drop falling for just under 900 feet itself, making it one of the tallest vertical waterfalls in France. At peak discharge the stream shoots out away from the cliff and free falls far enough from the cliff that it regularly gets blown around by the wind and can even be blown upwards. At lower flows wind gusts may dissipate the waterfall entirely before it reaches the valley floor.

HISTORY AND NAMES

---

• Arpenaz, La Cascade d' is the Official name of this waterfall

Our thoughts

---

Arpenaz is an impressive waterfall due to its height, but more so its an incredibly unique waterfall because of its behavior. Many waterfalls throughout the world exhibit the "reversing" effect - that is wind blowing the falling water back up and dissipating into thin air - but perhaps nowhere does this occur more prominently than here. It may, in fact, be harder to find a run of the mill sheer plunge-type waterfall with any more character.

As if a nearly 900 foot tall plunge wasn't enough, the cliff face behind the waterfall shows a massive syncline in the limestone layering. Imagine a backwards "letter C" with a waterfall spilling out of a notch at the top.

View this location in Google Earth

Arpenaz, La Cascade d' is shown in the center. The 10 closest waterfalls within a 8km radius are shown as well (if any). Click any icon or see the list below for more information.

Find More media

---

Search for pictures of Arpenaz, La Cascade d' on: Flickr Pbase Smugmug Webshots Google Images Photobucket

Search for video of Arpenaz, La Cascade d' on: YouTube Vimeo Flickr Photobucket Yahoo Video

 

User comments

---

We will be adding the ability for registered users to post comments about waterfalls they have visited in the future.