Exceptional Prehistoric Artwork of the Dordogne: Lascaux and Past

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Within the countryside of Southwest France, slightly over two hours east of Bordeaux, lies the Dordogne. Right here the Dordogne River winds between golden limestone cliffs and oak woods. Canoes drift previous hilltop castles, and medieval villages tuck themselves into the rock. Simply to the north, its quieter tributary, the Vézère river, carves a valley of its personal. Hidden in its cliffs lies the area’s biggest treasure. 1000’s of years earlier than the primary fortress, Ice Age artists stuffed its caves with bison, horses and mammoths. That is the prehistoric artwork of the Dordogne. No different nook of Europe holds so many traces of that distant previous.

In 1979, UNESCO added the Vézère Valley’s adorned caves and prehistoric websites to its World Heritage Checklist. Lascaux is probably the most well-known of them, however it’s only the start. For anybody interested in the place human creativity started, this valley is a must-see.

The place to See the Prehistoric Artwork of the Dordogne

Need to go to these prehistoric painted caves?
Be a part of us on our 8-Day Bordeaux & Dordogne small-group tour!

Why 17,000-Yr-Previous Work Are Definitely worth the Journey

We perceive the hesitation. A cave sounds chilly and darkish, and work of horses can sound like a faculty subject journey. Then you definately stand beneath a black bull 17 ft lengthy, painted by lamplight, and one thing shifts.

These artists labored in circumstances we will barely think about. They floor ochre and manganese into paint and blew pigment via hole tubes. They constructed scaffolds to achieve ceilings and labored by the glow of stone lamps. A few of their work cowl complete partitions. But day by day life was a continuing wrestle for meals, heat and security. That these individuals nonetheless discovered the time to enterprise deep underground and paint is exceptional. We nonetheless don’t know why they did it. But layer upon layer of figures suggests they got here again repeatedly.

Among the many Lascaux cave work, two bison stand tail to tail, one overlapping the opposite. It is likely one of the earliest makes an attempt to point out depth in artwork. Pablo Picasso is alleged to have left the cave remarking, “We now have discovered nothing in twelve thousand years.”

Then there may be the sheer span of time. These work are roughly 17,000 years outdated, older than farming, writing or the wheel.

“Standing in entrance of those work is the closest we are going to ever come to assembly our ancestors.”

Lascaux Caves: The Unique and Its Replicas

1940: The Discovery of the Sistine Chapel of Prehistory

The story of Lascaux begins with a canine. On September 8, 1940, a young person named Marcel Ravidat was strolling on the hill above Montignac. Out of the blue his canine, Robotic, disappeared right into a gap left by a fallen tree. Marcel tossed a stone inside and heard it roll on and on, deep into the hill. Native legend instructed of a secret tunnel resulting in the close by manor. May this be it?

4 days later, Marcel returned with three associates, Jacques Marsal, Georges Agniel and Simon Coencas. It was 1940, and France had simply fallen to Germany.

The boys widened the opening and slid down into the darkness. Then their lamp lit up the partitions. Bulls, horses and stags appeared to gallop throughout the rock in pink, yellow and black. That they had stumbled right into a gallery nobody had entered for 1000’s of years.

The boys instructed their schoolteacher, Léon Laval, who alerted Abbé Henri Breuil, the main prehistorian of his day. Breuil quickly arrived and gave Lascaux the identify that caught: the Sistine Chapel of Prehistory. Almost 6,000 figures fill the cave. Horses and stags mingle with aurochs, the enormous wild cattle of the Ice Age.

Lascaux opened to the general public in 1948. By the mid-Nineteen Fifties, as much as 1,200 guests a day have been bringing breath, warmth and humidity underground. Lichen and crystals started to unfold throughout the partitions, and the cave closed in 1963. It has by no means reopened. To guard the Lascaux cave work, solely a handful of scientists might enter, for a number of days every month.

To share Lascaux with out harming it, France turned to replicas. Lascaux II opened in 1983, adopted by the touring Lascaux III in 2012. The whole Lascaux IV arrived in 2016.

Lascaux II: The First Reproduction

France first opened Lascaux II in 1983, about 200 meters from the actual cave. It reproduces the 2 most spectacular areas, the Corridor of the Bulls and the Axial Gallery. By the Nineteen Seventies, painter Monique Peytral recreated the animals by hand. She used pure pigments, utilized with the identical strategies because the prehistoric artists.

For greater than 30 years, Lascaux II was the one option to expertise Lascaux, and guests liked it. Many left moved, even understanding they’d seen a replica. Nonetheless, Lascaux II had two limits. It confirmed solely a part of the cave. And its success drew giant crowds to the identical hill as the delicate authentic. Lascaux II nonetheless welcomes guests seasonally, in small teams, for a extra intimate go to.

Lascaux IV: The Full Cave

Prehistorian Yves Coppens, who chaired the undertaking’s scientific committee, believed the general public deserved to see Lascaux in its entirety. In December 2016, the Worldwide Middle for Cave Artwork opened Lascaux IV on the identical hill. It’s the solely full duplicate of the unique cave, each chamber and each determine at full scale.

Lascaux IV is as near the actual cave as science permits. Laser scans of each wall guided the work, and the result’s correct to inside a millimeter. For 3 years, sculptors and painters on the Périgord Facsimile Workshop recreated each aid by hand. They utilized pure pigments, the identical minerals the prehistoric artists used, layer by layer. Some particulars took hours for a number of sq. inches. They even reproduced the wear and tear that point has left on the unique partitions.

Step inside and the phantasm is full. The air is cool and humid, the sunshine is dim, and sound is muffled, simply as in a pure cave.

What Occurred to Lascaux III?

Lascaux III is just not a cave in any respect, which surprises many guests. Since 2012, it has been a touring exhibition that carries Lascaux all over the world. It facilities on 5 actual replicas of panels from the Nave and the Shaft. The exhibition has toured Italy, Japan, Canada and lots of different international locations. The numbers merely comply with the order of creation: Lascaux II in 1983, Lascaux III in 2012 and Lascaux IV in 2016.

What You Expertise at Lascaux IV

Your go to begins on a lookout above the Vézère Valley. From there you enter the duplicate. A information then leads you thru three nice highlights.

• The Corridor of the Bulls. This grand first chamber holds 36 animals, led by 4 large black aurochs (the wild ancestors of right now’s cattle). Horses, stags and the cave’s solely bear be a part of them. One bull is the biggest animal but present in cave artwork.
• The painted galleries. Within the Axial Gallery, aurochs, horses, deer and ibex cowl the partitions and arch throughout the ceiling. The artists wanted scaffolding to achieve them. Additional on, the Nave holds the crossed bison and a frieze of swimming stags.
• The Shaft scene. On the backside of a deep pit lies the cave’s most mysterious picture and its solely human determine.

  Accessibility: Lascaux IV is the best go to within the valley. An elevator and flat paths make it totally accessible to wheelchairs, and the middle holds France’s official “Tourisme & Handicap” label. Lascaux II, in contrast, is just not wheelchair accessible.

The Thriller of the Shaft

The Shaft lies on the far finish of the cave, on the backside of a drop of about 20 ft. Within the authentic cave, nobody might see the portray with out climbing down. Archaeologists even discovered a bit of prehistoric rope close by, in all probability used for the descent.

The scene itself is unusual. A stick-figure man with a hen’s head appears to fall backward earlier than a wounded bison. Beside him, a hen perches on a stick, whereas a rhinoceros walks away.

So why paint one thing nearly nobody would ever see? Some researchers learn it as a searching accident or a memorial. Others see a shaman in a trance, touring to the spirit world. One astronomer even proposed a map of the summer season stars. Maybe it was by no means meant for guests in any respect, however for the spirits, or for the artist alone. Because of Lascaux IV, now you can see what its creator saved hidden.

After the Cave: The Lascaux Workshop

Many guests are stunned to seek out that the go to continues lengthy after the cave. The Lascaux Workshop is a vibrant museum area that could be a spotlight in its personal proper. Life-size copies of the good panels fill the room. With a pill in hand, you’ll be able to gentle up particulars and see how every animal was drawn. It solutions all of the questions the darkish cave leaves you with.

A theater, a movie and a gallery linking cave artwork to Picasso and Miró full the expertise. Lascaux IV holds three stars within the Michelin Information, and it celebrated its tenth anniversary in 2026.

Unique or Reproduction: What Adjustments?

Some purists flip up their noses at a replica, but the emotion inside is actual. What you surrender is the fun of standing earlier than paint utilized 17,000 years in the past. In return, you acquire all the Lascaux cave work, defined by a information, with out danger to the originals.

Our recommendation is easy: see Lascaux IV, then pair it with an authentic cave. Font-de-Gaume and Rouffignac provide you with that thrill of authenticity.

Font-de-Gaume: Unique Coloration, Seen by Very Few

Simply outdoors Les Eyzies, a steep path climbs to a slender opening within the cliff. That is Font-de-Gaume, typically known as the final cave with authentic multicolored work nonetheless open to guests. Polychrome (painted in a number of colours) is the phrase you’ll hear from the guides.

The cave holds greater than 200 painted or engraved figures. Bison dominate, alongside horses, mammoths and reindeer. Researchers place them within the Magdalenian interval, round 17,000 years in the past, and the ornament was acknowledged in 1901.

Inside, the information’s gentle slides throughout the rock, and the bison appear to breathe. The artists positioned them the place pure bulges within the stone form a shoulder or a stomach. To guard the work, time contained in the cave is restricted to half-hour.

Accessibility: Font-de-Gaume is probably the most demanding cave on this checklist. A staircase and a steep, slender path of about 400 meters lead as much as the doorway. Inside, the passage is slender and dim, and you’ll need to stoop in locations. The ground is uneven, there is no such thing as a seating, and the air stays round 57°F.

Close by: Combarelles and Cap-Blanc

A couple of minutes from Font-de-Gaume, the Combarelles cave was acknowledged in 1901 by the identical workforce of prehistorians. Right here the artists didn’t paint. They engraved. Greater than 600 figures line a slender, winding hall about 800 ft lengthy. Horses dominate, joined by reindeer, mammoths, cave lions and bears. Look intently and additionally, you will discover some 50 human figures, a rarity in Ice Age artwork. As your information’s lamp strikes alongside the wall, high quality strains seem out of the naked rock.

Cap-Blanc presents one thing totally different once more: sculpture. About 15,000 years in the past, artists carved a frieze of horses straight into the wall of this rock shelter. It stretches some 43 ft, and the biggest horse is greater than 7 ft lengthy. Bison and ibex be a part of them. Within the smooth gentle, the animals appear to step out of the stone.

Cap-Blanc additionally holds a shock for American guests. In 1911, employees discovered the skeleton of a younger girl buried within the shelter. Referred to as the Magdalenian Woman, she was acquired by the Discipline Museum in Chicago in 1926. A duplicate rests on web site.

Each websites are run by the identical nationwide monuments workforce, and each require on-line reserving.

Accessibility: Combarelles is likely one of the extra bodily visits within the valley. Its hall is slender and low, so you’ll stoop in locations, and the sunshine is dim. There isn’t a seating, and the air stays round 54°F. Cap-Blanc is gentler as soon as inside, for the reason that frieze sits in a shelter at floor degree. Getting there takes extra effort, although. A winding forest path of about 200 meters slopes steeply downhill, which suggests a climb on the way in which again. The ramp on the welcome constructing can also be steep. Plan about an hour at every web site, and put on sturdy footwear. Vacationers with restricted mobility ought to contact the websites earlier than reserving.

Rouffignac: The Cave of a Hundred Mammoths

Hidden in quiet woodland about 9 miles (15 kilometers) north of Les Eyzies lies an excellent shock. Rouffignac is immense, with about 8 kilometers of galleries on three ranges.

Lengthy earlier than any artist arrived, cave bears hibernated right here. These weren’t abnormal bears. Cave bears have been an enormous Ice Age species, as large as the biggest bears alive right now. Males might weigh properly over 1,000 kilos. They vanished about 24,000 years in the past, however their traces stay all over the place. You cross the hollows they dug to sleep in. Their claw marks rating the partitions and even the ceiling above your head. Seeing them up shut is thrilling, and slightly intimidating.

You discover Rouffignac the mild approach, aboard a small electrical practice that has carried guests since 1959. It travels deep into the hill and pauses beneath the drawings. Since you keep seated, it fits vacationers preferring to not stroll far.

And what drawings they’re. Artists sketched greater than 250 animals in black, about 160 of them mammoths. Woolly rhinoceroses, bison, horses and ibex be a part of them. One frieze reveals ten mammoths strolling in a line.

The spotlight is the Nice Ceiling, crowded with animals drawn overhead in a low chamber. Right here the practice stops, and also you step off to take a look at the drawings up shut. The cave’s personal workforce dates the artwork to about 16,000 years in the past. These are the originals, not copies, and seeing them at the hours of darkness is unforgettable.

Accessibility: Rouffignac is the best of the unique caves, for the reason that practice does the strolling. The go to lasts about 70 minutes, and you can not depart earlier than the top. The cave stays round 55°F, so carry a heat layer.

“Rouffignac’s mammoths are the actual factor, drawn by arms that knew these animals alive.”

Additional Afield: Pech Merle

About 90 minutes south of Sarlat, within the neighboring Lot area, Pech Merle is properly well worth the drive. It is likely one of the few caves in France the place you’ll be able to nonetheless see authentic prehistoric work. Its well-known noticed horses stand again to again, surrounded by stenciled arms. They have been painted about 25,000 years in the past. Look down, too: the footprints of a prehistoric teenager have survived within the clay. The cave opens from spring to early November and limits its day by day guests, so ebook forward.

Les Eyzies, the World Capital of Prehistory

Les Eyzies sits the place tall cliffs crowd the Vézère River, about 13 miles (21 kilometers) from Sarlat. The village calls itself the world capital of prehistory, and it has earned the title. In 1868, employees uncovered the primary Cro-Magnon skeletons in a rock shelter right here. The shelter’s native identify gave us the phrase Cro-Magnon. It comes from the Occitan cro (hole) and Magnon, in all probability the identify of an area landowner. At this time the time period describes the primary trendy people in Europe, who lived right here about 28,000 years in the past. Not like the Neanderthals, an older human species that vanished about 40,000 years in the past, Cro-Magnons have been Homo sapiens like us.

Across the village lie not less than 37 adorned caves and shelters, the very best focus in Europe. Prehistory as a science largely took form right here, via the work of Breuil, Peyrony and their colleagues.

The Nationwide Museum of Prehistory occupies the outdated fortress constructed into the cliff above the principle road. Its collections come largely from Vézère Valley websites. They make an ideal introduction to the prehistoric artwork of the Dordogne. On its terrace stands Paul Dardé’s 1931 statue of a prehistoric man. Many guests name him Cro-Magnon, although the sculptor supposed a Neanderthal.

Past the Caves: Exploring the Périgord Noir

Most guests pair the prehistoric artwork of the Dordogne with the opposite treasures of the Périgord Noir. Sarlat-la-Canéda makes a pure base, with golden stone lanes and certainly one of France’s best-loved markets. Its medieval heart is among the many greatest preserved in France. Cobblestone streets wind between honey-colored mansions beneath steep roofs of lauzes (flat limestone slabs), typical of the Dordogne. It’s a must-see by itself. Staying right here helps you to take pleasure in it within the quiet of morning and night, then set out on straightforward day journeys.

From Sarlat, the Dordogne River is just a few minutes away, and castles line its banks. Beynac and Castelnaud face one another from reverse cliffs, outdated rivals from the Hundred Years’ Battle. Castelnaud now homes a museum of medieval warfare. Close by, the Château des Milandes tells the story of Josephine Baker. Between them, La Roque-Gageac clings to the cliff, whereas the hanging gardens of Marqueyssac look down on all of it. A brief drive away, the gardens of the Manoir d’Eyrignac are among the many loveliest in France.

Again within the Vézère Valley, the story of early people continues outdoors the caves. La Roque-Saint-Christophe is an enormous cliff shelter the place individuals lived from the Stone Age to the Center Ages. Saint-Léon-sur-Vézère, one of the vital lovely villages of France, sits in a bend of the river. Underground, the Gouffre de Proumeyssac reveals an enormous cavern glittering with crystals.

On the water, the valleys present one other face. Canoes and kayaks may be rented on each rivers for a number of hours or a full day. It’s nice enjoyable, however it’s also an actual exercise, so select a stretch that fits your vitality. For a calming trip, step aboard a gabarre (a conventional flat-bottomed wood boat). For hundreds of years, gabarres carried timber, walnut oil and wine down the Dordogne to Bordeaux. At this time they provide guided river cruises from La Roque-Gageac and Beynac, from April to early November.

A easy rhythm works properly. Go to one cave or museum within the morning, then a village or fortress after lunch. Three or 4 days round Sarlat allow you to take pleasure in prehistory and the Center Ages with out speeding.

Sensible Ideas for Visiting the Painted Caves

• Guide early. Lascaux IV time slots fill shortly in summer season, particularly English excursions. Font-de-Gaume admits solely a small variety of guests every day, and on-line reserving is required.
• Costume for the cave. Font-de-Gaume stays round 57°F and Rouffignac round 55°F, all yr. Deliver a heat layer, even in August.
• Put on sturdy footwear. Paths to the unique caves may be steep, and cave flooring are sometimes uneven.
• Depart the digital camera and bag. Images and baggage will not be allowed at Font-de-Gaume, and kids should be not less than seven.
• Plan across the calendar. Lascaux IV is open practically all yr. Rouffignac opens from spring to early November, and Font-de-Gaume’s ticket workplace closes on Saturdays.
• Examine the language. Rouffignac’s commentary is generally in French, so ask prematurely about English excursions. Our excursions all the time have an English language tour.
• Keep in Sarlat. It sits about 17 miles from Lascaux and 13 from Les Eyzies, with a beautiful medieval heart.
• Add a day if you happen to can. Font-de-Gaume, Combarelles and the museum in Les Eyzies simply fill an additional day by yourself.

Uncover the Painted Caves With Us

The prehistoric artwork of the Dordogne comes alive on Days 7 and eight of our 8-Day Bordeaux & Dordogne Tour. After a free morning on the Sarlat market, we admire the Lascaux cave work at Lascaux IV. Then we proceed to La Roque-Gageac, one of the vital lovely villages of France.

On the ultimate day, we discover the Nationwide Museum of Prehistory and the prehistoric web site of Le Moustier. We additionally cease in entrance of La Roque-Saint-Christophe, carved into the cliffs above the Vézère. Within the afternoon, we board Rouffignac’s electrical practice for an English-language go to of its authentic mammoth drawings. All entry charges and guided visits are included, and our teams by no means exceed 16 vacationers.

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À bientôt, mes amis

Julia