To me Proumeyssac and Padirac are really impressive, and worth the visit. Maxange is not in the same league, in terms of size, but interesting if you're in the area. The troglodyte dwellings under Belves are interesting for the anthropology/human history aspect, rather than because they are caves. But I think there's only one tour a day, in the afternoon, so you'd need to check with the Belves Office de Tourisme. Le Buisson has a good market on Fridays, so you could maybe combine Maxange with the Belves visit, and a visit to the Abbaye & Cloisters in Cadouin, which is a lovely detour.

Rouffignac is interesting, but the tours are exclusively in French and the narrative adds a great deal to the tour. We take our guests to Rouffignac in the morning, and then Lascaux II in the afternoon if they want to see more.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mksfca/5931384435/in/set-72157623164797649

You might want to visit the small but interesting Grotte du Sorcier, down the lane from my house in St-Cirq. It has a rather rare human image in it. I don't find Proumeyssac very interesting at all, but we have similar caves in Luray, VA, that I've visited often, so maybe that's why. It's just rock formations - no prehistoric chromatics. I like Padirac, but again, it's just rock formations and an underground river. If you haven't been to Les Combarelles, I'd include that.

Hi Marilyn. We liked Maxange, but it is certainly a smaller cave. No prehistoric paintings,but amazing formations. Having finally figured out which way stalagmites and stalactites went, you can see them going sideways there, which is really weird.

It's a while since we were in the Troglodyte dwellings in Belves, but it was interesting. Perhaps a stop on the way to Cadouin, which is really stunning. Also St Avit and the tiny church in Montferrand, which hardly anyone goes to, but which has some of the best frescoes I've ever seen. http://cettesemaineacarlux.blogspot.fr/2009_10_01_archive.html

Obviously this is all quite subjective and I will continue researching but thanks to everyone for your input!

rosemaryoz, we are staying near Les Milandes this time, a house exchange, so Belves and Le Buisson are quite accessible. Thanks for suggesting other places to visit nearby! I like to group sights by area. We definitely will return to Tremolat for lunch or dinner and that seems to be very close to Le Buisson as well.

Michael, I know exactly what you mean about missing out on the narration from our visit to Peche Merle. The brochure given to anglophiles had only a smattering of the information provided by the tour guide to francophiles. One German woman was quite irate that tours were only given in French when everyone in our group, including the guide, could speak English but only a few were fluent in French.

Your photos of places we've already been to and places we hope to visit this time are lovely! Were you able to take the Rouffignac one in the cave? One of the things we especially liked about La Cave, all "concretions" as far as I can remember, was that photography was allowed. Thanks!

StCirq, we drove up to your local cave last time so unknowingly passed right by your house. I've wondered whether any of the local caves, like Domme, are worthwhile.

We enjoy caves for either formations or artwork and those with both, like Peche Merle, are a bonus. The Grotte de Cougnac appeals to me because it has a role in "Le Boucher", set mainly in Tremolat. Thanks for suggesting Les Comberelles!

Carlux, it's easy to differentiate between stalagmites and stalactites if you picture "mites" going up and then "tites" going down! Just try to forget that image now.

I'll always remember the magic of our very first cave, Font de Gaume, which you booked for us back in 2006! A bonus for visiting Font de Gaume in June is that we saw some tiny orchids beside the path on the walk uphill.

I appreciate your suggestions for other places to visit near Belves and have bookmarked your blog (to study further) on my iMac. Bookmarks then miraculously transfer over to my iPad as well, all ready for our trip! Thanks!

I loved Les Combarelles because it was much less touristy, but you do have to bend and stretch a bit.

moonlyn,

The Rouffignac picture the copy of a postcard. The last time we went there, a middle-aged man tried to sneak a picture at the beginning of the train ride and the guide berated him quite severely, saying that anyone trying to act like a child will be treated accordingly.

I learned to differentiate between stalactites and stalagmites as a child thusly: c = ceiling; g = ground.

There's also Bara-Bahau in Le Bugue, BTW. A lot like Rouffignac.

Thanks, Ackislander! Two recommendations now for Les Combarelles.

Michael, I just might have to return to La Cave then as well to take photos. My battery ran out part way through the tour and it has lots of wonderful concretions that I didn't get a chance to photograph last time, not knowing that it was allowed!

StCirq, thanks to you, I'll now remember the "c"s and the "g"s as well as the "mites" and the "tites"!

I believe that only in caves devoid of human drawings and paintings will photography be allowed. Rouffignac does not have interesting formations aside from some domes.

Moolyn, if you're looking for a lunchstop in Cadouin, there's Restaurant de L'Abbaye, directly opposite the church. It's a small family-run place, serving rustic, authentic food, but very popular with the locals, so you'd be advised to reserve a table before you wander through the Abbey & Cloisters.

bookmarking

Michael, you are probably correct. I don't recall any artwork at La Cave.

rosemaryoz, thanks for the lunch stop suggestion! I'll add it to my notes.

Bookmarking

A heads up for those hoping to visit Font de Gaume this summer - all tours are booked until the end of August, according to the instant response I received when I tried to make a booking by email. Visitors are presently restricted to just 100 a day compared to 200 a day on my previous trip in 2006.

fontdegaume@monuments-nationaux.fr

It is still an option to arrive before the ticket office opens at 9:30am and try to get one of the few tickets kept for that particular day but I have no idea whether it's possible to get a tour in English this way or how many people will already be waiting in line.

We were very fortunate that many years ago we saw Altamira before it was closed to the public. For my 50th birthday, one of the places we visited was Dordogne. And of all the caves you have not visited we liked Rouffignac.

If you local library has a copy of "The Nature of Paleolithic Art" by R. Dale Gutherie, try to secure a copy. Otherwise it is a bit pricey. It is quite instructive.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Nature-Paleolithic-Dale-Guthrie/product-reviews/0226311260/ref=sr_1_1_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

What I find most interesting about this drawings is the inherent desire to communicate with one another. When I stare at these depictions, I think someone 15,000 or 17,000 years ago wanted others to know about his life and what he considered important. And often the art work itself is extraordinary considering their use of dyes and their sense of perspective.

Thanks for the recommendations, Aduchamp! I was quite impressed by the sophistication of the artists when we visited Font de Game in 2006. By the way they used the contours of the cave walls to emphasize the shape of the animals, for example.

My local library does indeed have a copy of The Nature of Paleolithic Art but, alas, only for research. I will go and see it after we return from France.

Nothing to offer but wishing you another wonderful trip
as it's almost June.

Thanks, Mimi! I'll think of you when we're in Paris!

Note also that if you do want to reserve at Font de Gaume you should do it by email to fontdegaume@monuments-nationaux.fr

When I tried to call for moolyn, I got a recording that basically gives opening times, and email address. They don't see interested in phone reservations any more, and of course email is easier. At least the recording is better than their old one which was done just as a supertanker of some such drove past their front door, thereby making it almost impossible to understand,

The email address given above by Carlux and me is also the one used to book tickets for Les Combarelles and sadly they are sold out until the end of the summer as well.

It appears from the instant response that tickets for the day of at Les Combarelles can possibly be obtained by lining up at the ticket office at Font de Gaume as well. My francais is rusty so I can't swear this is what is stated but try the email address if you want to see the message for yourself.

Thanks for the information about Les Combarelles. We are returning to the Dordogne the last week in June. We might try to get tickets by queuing. We visited Font de Gaume during our March trip and if we had known would have gotten tickets to Les Combarelles then. Ah well, I guess we will return.

We arrived at the Font de Gaume box office at 9:00 this morning, a little later than planned. There were about 24 people in line in front of us, possibly more waiting in their cars. To put this into perspective, this was an overcast Monday, before the main tourist season. I would suggest arriving earlier from now on to be sure to get tickets.

We had been told that 45 tickets were reserved for sale on the day of but the man from LA in front of us had heard 60. He had tried to book his tickets months in advance so I no longer felt quilty that I had waited too long to try to book ours. In any case, his family of four and my husband and I were successful and got tickets for English tours, his at 2:45 and ours at 11:30. I also scored two tickets for Les Combarelles at 2:15 but no English tours were offered there.

We expected only six people in our tour group but there were a group of bicyclers who asked if we would come back in the afternoon so the whole group could tour at the same time but we already had plans for the afternoon so stood firm. The guide stood firm too about not allowing more than twelve at a time. In the end, there were two noshows so all the bikers who wanted to see the cave did.

It was a great experience seeing both caves in one day. My husband actually found Les Combarelles more interesting although the thought of seeing the best preserved prehistoric paintings, faded as the were, quite overwhelmed me at Font de Gaume. In both caves I was impressed by the sophistication of the artists, using foreshadowing and representation and incorporating the contours of the cave into their artwork.

A bonus at Les Combarelles is that you are welcome to take photos of sketches of all of the etchings in the office. Also, since everyone in our group spoke English, our lovely young guide offered to give the tour in English! We left the cave in a downpour but our spirits were not dampened!

Here is some interesting new theories regrding cave drawings:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/15/science/new-dating-puts-cave-art-in-the-age-of-neanderthals.html?pagewanted=2&hp

Thanks, Aud, that IS interesting. By coincidence I was wondering to myself just this morning whether any of the drawings and paintings might have been made by Neandrathals.

We have visited two more caves and my husband has decided that's enough. Our four caves provided a wide range of variations so ended up being a good cross section.

Padirac was very impessive and also very wet. Nobody warned us about this! Fortunately we were wearing jackets with hoods but even so were wet right through by the end. Our tour guide told us that it was especially wet because there has been so much rain recently. This guide placed the English speakers at the front of the group and gave us a quick version of his French spiel each time we stopped Our boat guide spoke no English but offered us a printed brochure in English for his part of the tour.

Maxange is much drier and, like Font de Gaume and Les Combarelles, is on a much smaller scale than Padirac yet it has the largest collection of excentric concretions found anywhere. We enjoyed it and it was also a treat to be in a group of just six people. Even though the tour was officially in French, we were given a large plasticized page covering the main points at each stop and were also encouraged to ask questions, which we all did.

All of the caves cost seven and a half euros per person except Padirac which cost nine euros, eighty.

rosemaryoz, we has a lovely lunch at Restaurant de l'Abbaye in Cadouin today, a very popular spot. We enjoyed the market in Buison very much and would have happily spent longer there had we know we would have to wait half an hour for a tour at Maxange.

We also visited Belves. English tours of the habitations are offered at 12:00, 3:45 and 6:00 but only if there are at least four people. It was very hot and nobody else had turned up for the 3:45 tour by the time we finished a walking tour of the medieval part of town so we missed out. Next time...

We were watching a video on the beautiful Friesian horses. They go back many. many years and info on them said there were drawings of them in caves in southern France & Spain. Does anyone know which caves in France would picture them?

Glad you enjoyed Maxange - we went a few years ago, and it's really quite different from the others. Also interesting to see a cave that was found only a few years ago, (2000)Not many people seem to go to this one

hi moolyn - glad you enjoyed two of my fave places today - i have lovely memories of going there with our kids about 10 years ago or so.

i certainly don't remember Padirac being wet - we had vey good weather I recall though it was sometime in May I think.

i know what you mean about 4 being enough - there are some very nice gardens in the area if it stops raining!

Perhaps not such a big thing to other people, but we were just at a degustation/lunch across the river at La Gabarre, an excellent restaurant in St Julien de Lampon, and met someone who grew up near the Lascaux cave, knew the 4 boys (and their dog) who found it, and actually visited the caves 12 DAYS after it was found. He says his mother was from Les Eyzies, where they found the cro-magnon bones, and his father from Montignac, where there are lots of Neanderthal sites, and so he figures he links the two lines.

moolyn---we've been following this thread closely.

Thanks for the website. We were able to get a reservation at Font de Gaume in Sept. We would like to reserve one more site. Les Combarelles is already sold out for Sept.

For variety, anyone have any suggestions for something a bit different from Font de Gaume? We've been reading a lot of reviews and trip reports and can't seem to choose, it all sounds so wonderful. We were thinking Padriac (along with visiting Rocamadour on one day) or Proumeyssac(along with?)

After reserving 2 sites, we'll leave the other caves up for grabs. We have a week in the area and we like to just drive around the small towns & discover along the way.

The gardens are of great interest to us. Marqueyssac and Eyrignac are definitely on our list, so maybe we can combine a cave in one of those specific areas along with a garden.

After reading so many tips on the area, maybe 1 week isn't enough!

TPAYT - definitely Padirac - it's simply unique, IMHO. and Rocamadour is very interesting, although quite touristy, obviously. I think we did them on the same day but it's a long time ago.

'After reading so many tips on the area, maybe 1 week isn't enough!'

One week is never enough here!

TPAYT, Les Combarelles has lots of drawings of horses so perhaps it's the one you heard of. You might be able to pick up tickets for it when you visit Font de Gaume, worth a try.

This website shows drawings of some of the etchings to give you an idea: http://donsmaps.com/combarelles.html

I totally agree with Carlux that one week is ever enough and am so glad we listened to her when we first visited six years ago.

I also agree with annhig that Padirac is unique. You certainly can visit Rocamadour on the same day but get to Padirac early. It opens at 9:30. Lacave, also in that direction, is worthwhile too although it isn't mentioned as much. It's all concretions and photography is allowed, or was when we visited six years ago. Padirac, although very impressive, has vey few concretions and I really like them.

Carlux, I took a photo of the man who discovered Maxange while I was there, realizing the future historical significance!