Chauvet-Pont d’Arc in Ardèche, France, an enormous, stunning, prehistoric painted cave, is closed for preservation. Its replica, called Chauvet 2, opened to the public in 2015. The original cave is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site. The oldest site I visited on this journey across the south of France, it is dated at approximatelyContinue reading “Chauvet, 200th post!”
Category Archives: caves
L’Aven d’Orgnac, Sarlat
The painted caves I visited in the south of France did not, for the most part, exhibit the concretions usually seen in caves formed, and still forming, by water. It is thought that the lack of moisture and leaking or dripping water that created other caves served to preserve the paintings and etchings of theContinue reading “L’Aven d’Orgnac, Sarlat”
Les Combarelles, Pech-Merle caves
The next two days, on this south of France journey, we ventured into two more natural caves that had been open to the air for thousands of years. Like Font-de-Gaume, the caves were preserved as much as possible, once their significance was realized, with minimal lighting used sparingly and floor gratings to protect gravel andContinue reading “Les Combarelles, Pech-Merle caves”
Lascaux
In 1940, four teenage boys and their dogs explored the grounds around the old Lascaux castle, in the Périgord region of France, looking for treasure. Robot, the dog, fell into a hole. They were able to rescue him, and could see there was an underground cave. The oldest, Marcel Ravidate, age 17, returned with some otherContinue reading “Lascaux”
Les Eyzies, Font-de-Gaume cave
Picturesque Les Eyzies-de-Tayac-Sireuil, which calls itself the Center of Prehistory in Dordogne, France is surrounded by cliffs and rock formations, and is home to caves, shelters, and remains from tens of thousands of years and more in the past. It’s situated in the Vézère Valley, declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979. Up aboveContinue reading “Les Eyzies, Font-de-Gaume cave”
Ruth Rosenfeld 