Prehistoric Lascaux caves

Saturday 20^th Grotte de Lascaux

We were up and off first thing. Our drive started with a visit to another of the ‘one of the most beautiful villages in france ‘(there are 150 of these) named Beynac et Cazenac from there we drove a little further north through some lovely countryside passing La Roque Saint Christophe. This 1km stretch of limestone rock has been constantly eroded by the river and frosts and has man creating hundreds of rock shelters and large overhead terraces. The natural cavities have been occupied by man since pre historic times and were later altered in the Middle Ages to form a fort and a town until the start of the Renaissance period.

We continued our drive up to the famous Lascaux caves. When we arrived we were told that the caves were only accessible with a guide and this required purchasing a ticket from the nearby village of Montignc. Back down the hill. We purchased our tickets and then headed back up to the caves. The caves are really interesting. They were not discovered until the early 1940s when a group of boys literally fell upon them. When they saw the prehistoric painting they realised this was something special and brought a old teacher to have a look with them. He realised the importance of this find and so the appropriate authorities were contacted. The caves were open to the public until the 60s but then when the painting started to deteriorate due to moulds and respiratory moisture brought in by the tourists they were closed. An exact replica of the caves was then created including 90% of the famous paintings. This was opened in 1983 and so it is now 30 years old. It was this replica that we visited.  The paintings had all copied in an authentic manner with same pigments and techniques and were mind blowing. What a find it must have been for those four boys!

We really enjoyed this visit and after our 40 minute tour we walked up to the original site that is now closed off and then headed back to the van. We still had a bit of driving to do and we ended up in another medieval town called Donzenac. This had a small aire next to a campsite. We pulled into a space next to a French couple who had brought their dog and cat with them.

Sunday 21^st Donzenac to Champeix

Today was a travelling day as we made our way back towards the east of France. We left our aire about 9am but as we were leaving we saw an intermarche with a launderette in the car park. Annoyed that we had not seen it last night we pulled in to get some food and to get our bedding washed. Shopping was not easy as there are so many lovely choices in French supermarkets but as our fridge is really struggling to keep anything cold much of what was bought was in jars or cans. Once our chores were complete we set off again. It was to be another day well into the 30s but we found a lovely picnic area under shady trees where we could have our coffee. We were only saying how quite it was in this spot when another motorhome arrived. This was a dutch couple with a large black Labrador cross. Of course we went over to say hallo. We spoke about their travels and they showed us a video  ‘ the last post’ played at Ypres that they had visited. The last post has been played every evening since WW1 (although we did wonder what happened during WWII years). We said our goodbyes and continued our journey. Most of it had been on the main road but we came off to explore the small towns of La Bourboule and le Mont Dore.  These are in an ancient volcanic area of France and we found ourselves once again driving up mountain passes. All very attractive. We eventually stopped in Champeix at a free aire by a small river. The aire was lovely but the town was uninteresting. We went for a short cycle but could not find anything of interest so returned home to have supper and for Mike an early night.