Dordogne

After we left the Club Med, we rented a car and headed off for the Dordogne region of France.  We had read that in order to be able to properly see the area, one needed a car, and it was evident to us pretty soon that indeed a car was a must.  We stayed on the hill of the medieval town of Limeuil in a cozy 2 bedroom house with private garden, just outside of the gates of The Panoramic Gardens of Limeuil that gave us our first views of the valley below where the Dordogne and Vézère rivers meet.    We did the children’s self-guided tour of the gardens and learned a little more about the medieval times as a result.

However, the main reason we wanted to visit this region wasn’t only for its medieval history.  This region has an amazing concentration of  prehistoric paleolithic cave art dating back some 14,000 to 19,000 years or so.  Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to take any pictures inside of the caves, but I’m sure googling the cave names will give you some images if you are curious.

The first cave we visited was Font-de-Gaume which is the last cave with polychrome (more than one colour) paintings still open to the public.  The number of visitors per day is limited (only 180 visitors per day) so Barry had booked our tour beforehand.  

The Grotte du Sorcier was very close to where we stayed and had a very interesting setting with medieval buildings nestled right next to the cliff .  Here there was a small, but interesting museum and a small cave with several carvings, the most famous being one of a man that has been named the sorcerer.  Apparantly, carvings or paintings of people are quite rare.

We next visited the Grotte de Rouffignac which was a big hit for all of us.  We got to travel deep into the cave by electric train and saw  cave drawings of rhinoceros, mammoths, horses and ibex.  They were truly spectacular to see and, to me, looked as though they could have been sketched the week before we came.  We also saw many  claw marks and holes in the floor of the cave where prehistoric bears spent their winters hibernating.

The next day I promised everyone a day off from cave visiting, so instead we took a short canoe trip down the Dordogne river and then visited the town of La Roque Gageac where we enjoyed lunch at lovely little restaurant.  So far, this town ranks number 1 for the most picturesque town I have seen anywhere in the world.  Grace thought I was exaggerating, but even now no cuter town comes to mind.

I wasn’t quite done with the cave exploring however, and the next day we drove out to visit Lascaux ll, a reproduction of the most famous prehistoric cave in the world.  The original cave was found in the 1940’s by 4 teenage boys walking in the woods with their dog “Robot” after Robot disappeared down a hole (Grace was surprised the guide didn’t fill us in on whether or not Robot was hurt!).  They followed their dog down and were awed at what they saw.  Their pact to keep their new-found cave a secret lasted a mere 3 days before informing the village teacher.  I can’t imagine how thrilling it would have been to have been the first humans to see this art in some 15-18 thousand years!  (I was thrilled enough getting whisked through the copy cave with a large group of fellow tourists. ) Unfortunately, in the years following the discovery throngs of people, up to 1200 visitors a day, subsequently visited the cave breathing out lots of carbon dioxide and raising the cave temperature causing damage to the paintings.  Consequently, it was closed to the public in 1963 and a reproduction (accurate to within several mm) constructed 200 metres from the authentic Lascaux and this is where we visited.  Admittedly, we almost didn’t bother with this visit seeing it wasn’t the real thing, but we are so glad that we did as it was truly impressive.  After exiting, even the two girls thought they would like to go right back in and see it one more time.

2 of the discoverers, now well into their 80’s, are still living  and make a trip every year to the cave on the anniversary of the discovery.  I am assuming they are some of the priveleged few who still get to see the original.  

We ended our visit to this area with a walk around the medieval section of the city of Sarlat.  Although this area of France takes a bit of effort to get, to we would definitely visit again.