About Sillans La Cascade
Sillans La Cascade is the name of both the pleasant double-barreled waterfall as well as the town just upstream from it.
As far as its translation and spelling, it literally means Sillans, the waterfall, but I’ve also seen it spelled with hyphens like Sillans-la-Cascade as well as being referred to as La Cascade de Sillans.
Technically, both the waterfall and town belong to the Var department of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region (more specifically in Cote d’Azur or French Riviera region) in Southern France.
This attractive waterfall featured dual parallel drops each with a height of a reported 44m.
We noticed some interesting travertine formations here, and the waterfall seemed like a very popular place despite the authorities closing access to the base of the falls.
Still, that didn’t stop people from going around some of the barricades while knocking down others to gain access to where the waterfall was the most scenic.
Walking to the Sillans La Cascade Waterfall View
The well-signed walking path started from a car park area at the start of town right in front of the walls of a pretty humble-looking chateau (at least humble by France’s lofty standards).
We then crossed the road before following a well-established trail of about 1km in each direction.
During the walk, we noticed some wildflowers blooming in a pair of meadows of tall grass as well as an old-looking stone wall adjacent to the foot path.
Eventually, the trail branched off at a junction where the upper path climbed to a panoramic view of the Sillans La Cascade Waterfall while the other path descended towards its “forbidden” base.
While the panoramic view of the falls was the safer way to see it, I found that the view wasn’t that great.
As you can see in the photo above, the presence of lots of trees blocked most of the view, especially the waterfall’s bottom.
The Bottom of the Sillans La Cascade
Even though there were numerous people who ignored the barricades and warning signs to gain access to the waterfalls’ base, the authorities had good reason to close it.
During the time of our visit, there were three giant rocks atop the cliffs by the waterfall that could fall at any moment.
So if you do decide to go into the forbidden area, please realize the risk being taken.
Ultimately you are responsible for your own decisions and the safety of yourself as well as of those you might have brought with you.
So with that said, I admittedly followed some folks towards the bottom of the Sillans La Cascade Waterfall where the path degenerated into a scramble on rocks and logs to get a cleaner look.
I would definitely recommend against swimming here to minimize the temptation of increasing your exposure to that rockfall danger even more.
But from down here, I definitely found Sillans-La-Cascade Waterfall at its photogenic best.
There was even a rainbow arcing across its base on the afternoon that we showed up, which further augmented the experience!
Authorities
Silland-la-Cascade (Cascade de Sillans) resides in Sillans-la-Cascade in the Alpes-Maritimes department of the Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur province of France. For information or inquiries about the area as well as current conditions, visit their tourism board website.
We managed to reach the town of Sillans-la-Cascade from the Gordes area.
This drive took us about 2.5 hours via a combination of driving the A7 and A8 autoroutes due east of Aix-en-Provence then leaving the autoroute for the D22 road near Brignoles.
While going northeast on the mountainous D22, we passed through the charming town of Cotignac (though we didn’t have time to stop here to check it out).
The driving on the D22 probably takes between 30-45 minutes depending on traffic conditions (specifically if you’re following a caravan of vehicles started by a slow driver refusing to use shoulders or pullouts).
It’s probably about 80-90 minutes drive from Marseilles or Nice (as the falls and town are pretty much in the middle of the two cities).
Perhaps, the Sillans-la-Cascade sits a bit closer to the city of Aix-en-Provence as it’s maybe about an hour or so drive from there.
For further context, Gordes (where we were staying) was 39km (under an hour drive) east of Avignon, 91km (90 minutes drive) north of Marseille, and 258km (2.5-3 hours drive) south of Lyon.
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Top down sweep of a profile view of the waterfall
Top down sweep of the falls from as direct of an angle as I was able to get
Bottom up sweep of the falls with rainbow at its base
Right to left sweep from the panoramic lookout eventually zooming in on the falls
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