The real Lascaux Cave was closed to the public in 1963. It was delightful with incredible paintings including a beautiful one of a woman’s face peering out at you from 16,000 years ago, We went to another more famous cave with maybe more “dramatic” paintings but getting herded by them was nothing like our incredible tour with Michael as our personal guide, One of the best things you will do in the Dordogne.
Michael has very good English and is quite knowledgeable explaining the paintings and the history of the cave. Michael spent almost two hours with just me and my wife taking us through the four dark caverns with only a flashlight to illuminate over 100 cave paintings. This family-owned cave is an experience like no other.
DORDOGNE VALLEY CAVES FREE
The cave is only open when you owners are free to give you a tour, PLEASE NOTE that GPS will take you to a parking area that is then a 15 minute walk through the woods with tiny hand written signs pointing you to the cave entrance where you will find a locked steel door, We were about to leave at 5:20 when a man pulled up on a scooter and introduced himself as Michael. I was told it was not possible but a tour could be arranged at 5pm. On a whim during lunch, I called the number listed for this cave to see if they might have a tour available at 2:30. Only downside, no photography with or without flash allowed, which I fully understand for preservation reasons, but I would have dearly liked to take some pictures, it's really beautiful down there. It is chilly though, so pop a jumper on before you go in. However, once inside, the paths have a non slip surface, so you don't have to worry about the terrain.
DORDOGNE VALLEY CAVES PLUS
The walk down to the caves is a very steep slope, and there are steps going down to the cave itself, plus a few inside so not really suitable for wheelchair users without difficulty. You will have to duck down a lot in places and we did see a few bats flying about, but we quite liked that. Pretty gift shop and bar area too in a very tranquil setting. The sound and light shows were really well done, and the guide spoke alternated between English and French, plus there was a handy laminated written guide in English. 20,000 year old cave art, beautiful galleries and grottos, and my favourite part, the grotto showing the scratch marks of Ice-age bears that were 3mtrs tall. They ask you not to take pix in the first part of the tour, which is nice because you’ll get better pix in the second part anyway.Īll in all, not quite what I expected or wanted, but pretty darn good!Ībsolutely loved these caves, I've never seen anything quite like them. We really liked the second part of the experience, which is a second room of reproductions which are better lit and which you can explore at your own pace, unlike the tour (see pix). I expected to be moved but the space is weirdly lit and the tour guide flashed his torch around in a crazy way that made it difficult to focus on the art at hand. Our guide took us through the reproduction very quickly and we fell behind since our friend walks slowly. The original cave has been closed to the public for 60 years due to environmental issues connected with humidity. This is a reproduction, which I was excited about, having visited the reproduction of King Tut’s tomb, which is very cool. The cave was advertised as easy for the mobility impaired and it was if one had a wheelchair or cane, but there were no places to sit in the “cave” and not enough benches in the second part of the exhibit.
We went with an elderly friend who has some trouble walking. The paintings look the same in any language! If you get stuck with the wrong language, not to worry. If you want the tour in English, book the English language tour (several per day).
0 kommentar(er)
