Tag: Lascaux Caves

Bishops Visit – France and More – Lascaux II

Our next port of call was Lascaux Caves II. This was one of the coldest day we had experienced so far. After scraping the ice off the windows of the car we loaded up and set off. “Lascaux (Lascaux Caves) is the setting of a complex of caves in south western France famous for its Palaeolithic cave paintings. The original caves are located near the village of Montignac, in the department of Dordogne. They contain some of the best-known Upper Palaeolithic art. These paintings are estimated to be 17,300 years old. They primarily consist of images of large animals, most of which are known from fossil evidence to have lived in the area at the time. In 1979, Lascaux was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Sites list along with other prehistoric sites in the Vézère valley.” (Wikipedia)

The caves were sealed by a land slip and rediscovered by a small dog falling into an opening of the caves and its school boy owner climbing in to rescue the dog. The caves were open to the public until it was found that even the breath of the visitors was causing damage to the paintings so they were closed and now can only be visited by scientists a maximum of 300 hours per annum. The French have exactly recreated part of the caves in a tourist attraction nearby and are presently recreating all of the caves in a new exhibit closer to the township of Montingac. Even though these are only replicas it is extraordinary.

The caves themselves are extraordinary evidence of the intelligence of Palaeolithic people. For instance they have found evidence that the artists used scaffolding to enable them to paint on the ceiling, used reindeer fat with birch wicks (birch does not smoke) to provide light to paint by and used the surface of the rock wall to emphasise the shapes of the animals they painted. there are pictures of horses, lots of horses and deer painted on the walls but not all the walls but mainly the upper part to the ceiling due to the rock structure and the fact that water had probably run through the caves at various times.  No photos allowed sorry due to copyright issues. So just a few pictures of the visitors centre, the entrance and a frozen bush and the link to the website. See; http://www.semitour.com/lascaux-ii

There is no problem with access. The visitors centre and caves are both on an even surface but there are steps down into the exhibit. There is a further museum displaying other prehistoric discoveries of the area and the remaining caves in replica at the village of Les Eyzies de Tayac-Sireuill.

Recommended!.

Bishops Visit – France and More – Sarlat la Caneda and Chateau Castelnaud

“The Château de Castelnaud is a medieval fortress in the commune of Castelnaud-la-Chapelle, overlooking the Dordogne River in Périgord, southern France. It was erected to face its rival, the Château de Beynac. The oldest documents mentioning it date to the 13th century, when it figured in the Albigensian Crusade; its Cathar castellan was Bernard de Casnac. Simon de Montfort took the castle and installed a garrison; when it was retaken by Bernard, he hanged them all. During the Hundred Years’ War, the castellans of Castelnaud owed their allegiance to the Plantagenets, the sieurs de Beynac across the river, to the king of France. In later times it was abandoned bit by bit, until by the French Revolution it was a ruin. Today the picturesquely restored château, a private property open to the public, houses a much-visited museum of medieval warfare, featuring reconstructions of siege engines, mangonneaux, and trebuchets. The castle is listed as a monument historique by the French Ministry of Culture.” (Wikipedia)

The day of our visit the weather was overcast and foggy so we could not fully enjoy the scenic views from the chateau nor the quaintness of the village below it. The chateau is a complete museum of medieval instruments of war particularly early catapults. We spent hours going through all the exhibits but be warned there is a lot of steps some very steep and narrow. It is no place for people with a disability or young children.

After our visit we travelled to the village of La Roque Gageac where the fog prevented us from enjoying the dramatic setting for this village. It sits under a ridge of vertical rock and apparently has caves behind it but we could only vaguely see the stairs in the wall leading to these caves. Some adventurers could be seen through the fog abseiling down the cliff face. We did explore a walk amongst the houses and found a subtropical garden hidden behind the houses.

 

We returned to Sarlat for our final night. We dined at a small restaurant in the old city. The weather was turning very cold and it was uncomfortable to walk around the city so we retired to our hotel as tomorrow we travel to Lascaux Caves and then onto Dampierre Sur Boutonne.