Yet when you return to your cave, you won't be painting those mundane sheep and fish, as might be expected - you'll be etching a series of aspirational creatures, those bison and aurochs you see in the distance but don't approach.Īn There isn't a fish or sheep in sight on the walls of Lascaux. Imagine you are a prehistoric cave dweller during the Ice Age, leaving your shelter to hunt for food when the weather becomes clement.Īs you look out on the hilly, even jagged landscape, you see horses galloping in the distance, some perhaps slipping on remnants of ice, or galloping away firmly if this happens to be one of the warmer periods of melt.īison and aurochs are plentiful, although you will mostly be hunting sheep and fish, much easier to catch. Some of the best caves of France are in the Dordogne in southwestern France, and Lascaux in the Vézère Valley is probably at the top of the list when it comes to painted caves in France: its decorated cave walls were were probably the work of Magdalenians of the Upper Paleolithic somewhere between 17,000 and 20,000 years, but let's not quibble over a few millennia. The Lascaux cave paintings may be the most famous prehistoric cave paintings in France, or even in the world (at least that's what we are told as children in school, as we begin our arduous climb through centuries of history).Īnd what secrets might be hidden in Lascaux? The best caves in the Dordogne They are often places where our secrets have gone to die, only to be resurrected when someone stumbles into one or a curious explorer comes to visit. Prehistoric caves take us into the dusty corners of our history. And in summer, they kept us cool well before fans and air conditioning were invented. They once hid us from human predators whose sense of smell wasn't developed enough to sniff us out. And let's be honest: France has some of the best caves in the world.Ĭaves are dark and secretive they protect us against the elements, or would have, long ago. well, forever, since humans first started seeking shelter in what would someday become La France. Our prehistoric heritage proves it: we've loved caves for. The include some caves that are World Heritage Sites, as well as some of the oldest, most visited, or best-loved caves in France.Ĭlick to enlarge Caves in France map The best caves in France that date from prehistoryĮveryone loves a mysterious cave, and we French are no different. Map of the best prehistoric caves of France and eventually an archaeologist visited the site, so struck by it that he called it the "Sistine Chapel of Prehistory".Īnd so were the Lascaux Caves, the most famous caves in France, brought from their early days as a refuge for homo sapiens into the modern world. a cavernous room that would come to be known as the Cave des Taureaux (Great Hall of the Bulls).Īt first, the boys swore to keep their secret but boys being boys, they soon told someone who told someone. Armed with a long blade and two home-made lamps, they lowered themselves eight meters into the cave and were met with a stunning sight: walls covered in paintings of galloping horses, aurochs, bisons. Photo D.R./Ī few days later he returned with friends. From left to right: Léon Laval (teacher), Marcel Ravidat and Jacques Marsal (two of the four teenagers who uncovered the grotto), Father Henri Breuil (pre-historian who authenticated the discovery).
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