I had been through Marseille decades ago while visiting French towns where Impressionist artists had painted (links below), but it was just a train connection. This time I had a day to wander and visit one more ancient cave painting site. My wanderings were planned to take me to the Cosquer cave on the MediterraneanContinue reading “Marseille, Cosquer”
Category Archives: Europe
Arles
Just a short train ride from Montpellier is the town of Arles, in the south of France, where Vincent Van Gogh lived for a year. Artist Paul Gauguin joined him there for two months, a turbulent cohabitation. Van Gogh created over three hundred paintings there, many so iconic we know and revere them today, althoughContinue reading “Arles”
Montpellier
On the last day of my tour across the south of France to see prehistoric painted caves, we arrived in Montpellier. It had been a week since we were in a real city; I admit to being a bit reluctant to leave those picturesque villages and charming country inns behind. Our historic hotel, the GrandContinue reading “Montpellier”
Chauvet, 200th post!
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!”
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”
Saintes, Saint-Césaire
The themes for this week-long tour across the south of France were Neanderthals, early humans, and prehistoric painted caves. As someone who has a degree in fine art and has studied art history, I signed up for the cave art. But we had one more day to go before we found those places. I wouldContinue reading “Saintes, Saint-Césaire”
Bordeaux
The heart of this September 2025 Europe trip was a tour across the south of France to visit prehistoric cave paintings (links below). We were to meet early in the morning at the Bordeaux airport and travel from there. So I booked a stay at a hotel near the airport and planned a day beforeContinue reading “Bordeaux”
Ruth Rosenfeld 