Dordogne Caves

Dordogne (pronounced, “Dordonha”) is a department (county?) in southwestern France. It is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution, 04 March 1790. Quaint little town with a significant asset.

The Dordogne Caves, Lascaux being the most famous but closed to the public, was our reason for visiting this little hamlet on the river. (River Dordogne, what else!) Our drive was about 2hrs from Bordeaux through unchanging countryside. Most of France that we have traveled is farmland consisting of feed corn. Some sunflower fields and a few other crops have been spotted but they are the exception.

We left Bordeaux at around 5:30am to get to the cave ticket office before 7:30am. In researching these caves, we found out that only 12 people per hour are allowed in the caves and only a total of 56 tickets are sold at the counter. Advanced reservations can be made for an additional 26 tickets but those are usually sold out many months in advance. A numbered bench seat is used to ensure those who got there before sunup don’t have to fight for a ticket. Good thing, Collette was tired after getting up early! Ticket prices are 7.5EU for adult at each cave. Tickets can only be purchased at Font de Gaume for both caves.

We are visiting Font de Gaume first. This cave has “paintings” dating back to 15,000BC, while Les Combarelles has “etchings” dating back to the same period as Font de Gaume.

Font de Gaume has more than 200 depictions of bison, horses and reindeer. Some are very distinct while others are a little hard to see until the guide shows the outline. Early cave painters used the shape of the rock wall to compliment their figures. For instance, a indentation may cause a shadow that fits the belly of a bison, or a crack in the stone could be part of the horse’s mouth. Once you get a feel for what to look for, there seemed to be paintings everywhere. Colors are primarily black and red, with use of the brown rock for some body depictions.

The drawings range from elementary to advanced with the advanced depictions having shading of animal parts to create an almost 3-D scene. Some have smaller animals standing in front of larger animals to give depth. Some of the depictions show animals in conflict, but one particular drawing  shows reindeer in a “caring” or “nurturing” position. This reindeer appears to be “licking” the other reindeer that is giving birth.

We finished our morning guided tour, which to say a word about our guide, he was passionate about these drawings. It was obvious that he was well versed in the history but equally obvious was that he was passionate about what we were seeing. Several times he said, “Look. Do you see? Man made this, you see? How wonderful!”

Moving on we entertained ourselves by watching the locals play “find a parking spot”. Our tour of Les Combarelles was not until 2pm so we strolled, had coffee, ate our lunch and strolled a little more. Here in France, retirees stroll, not mosey.

Les Combarelles is different from Font de Gaume in that almost all of the paintings have lost their color leaving only etchings or scratches in the stone outlining the animals. There is another difference here, there are “humans” depicted. None of the images in Font de Gaume are of people, only animals . Les Combarelles has several of people in different positions and some of only the head or body torso.

Lighting played a much larger role in seeing these etchings. Some had multiple animals overlapping each other so it was important to watch as the guide illuminated the wall from different angles. Again, once you began to understand what to look for it became easier to recognize the etchings.

So, end of the day, a 4hr drive to spend 1hr in caves that had depictions dating back 17,000 years. Well worth it! Last year we saw the oldest man-made structure on Earth, now these images. Absolutely wonderful.

Pictures of the cave:

Its a cave. What the hell did you expect to see?

Just kidding! No pictures were allowed inside so here are some from outside and an artist’s rendition from the visitor’s center.

What a cave looks like before becoming a cave!