330east

You might want to take a look at Don's Maps. (you can google them.)

MaineGG

If narrow passages, tight spaces and stairs are a concern, I would recommend Rouffignac. The entrance is wide open and the tour is by electric tram.

http://www.grottederouffignac.fr/index.php/welcome

http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/fr...gnac/index.php

Another site in the area that might be of interest is La Roque St. Christophe. It's not a cave, but a shelter high on a cliff above the Vézère River.

http://www.roque-st-christophe.com/?lang=en

We enjoyed both these sites (in addition to Font de Gaume, Lascaux II, the Grotte du Sorcier and the Gouffre de Padirac).

KarenWoo

MaineGG has made some good suggestions, too. We also enjoyed Rouffignac and La Roque St. Christophe.

jerseysusan

Thanks MaineGG, I plan on visiting many of those sites

kja

It's been a while, so my memories could be off -- but would La Roque St. Christophe (which I thoroughly enjoyed) be a good place for someone with narrow staircases?

If the goal is to see some stunning prehistoric art with minimal exposure to narrow stairs or passages, I'll throw out another option: L'Abri du Cap Blanc. Not a cave, no narrow passages or winding stairs.... And, I believe, quite unusual, as few if any deep-relief sculptures have been found elsewhere. Just an option....

Nikki

My memory of the Roque St. Christophe does not include any narrow, winding stairs. It is a very open site, built into the edge of a cliff but not closed off.

tom_mn

Rouffignac: I believe the appeal of the deep painting locations was that these areas originally had a low ceiling so the artists could paint on the ceiling while lying on their backs. Recently the floor of the cave was lowered to accommodate visitors standing up.

This isn't a tight experience.

nola77382

We went to Pech Merle and Lascaux II in 2015. Both were wonderful in their own way with no windy stairways.

To add more options: We went to Gouffre de Padirac and Grottes de Cougnac and loved them both. Neither has windy stairs and Padirac can be accessed by an elevator.

I didn't like Rouffignac as much as the others because the only tour available was in French (I, unfortunately, don't speak French), the audio "ipod" was not great, and it was really, really cold in there!

We enjoyed La Roque St. Christophe because of the amazing views.

jerseysusan

Thanks again all for your input. I am doing more research and considering our options.

kja

FWIW, while I agree that the Gouffre de Padirac is worth seeing, it is not a cave with prehistoric art, and it is in Lot, not the Dordogne.

StCirq

The Gouffre de Padirac is like the Luray caves in VA - hokey, IMO. Yes, there are great stalagmites and stalactites, but you can see those in many places, including the Gouffre de Proumeyssac between Le Bugue and Audrix. It does make some sense to stop there if one is visiting Rocamadour, though. Of far more interest to me in the area are Collonges-la-Rouge and Martel.

La Roque St-Christophe to me is amazing and not to be missed, especially since it so close to St-Léon-sur-Vézère, one of the prettiest villages in the area, with a romanesque chapel that is on the Route de Compostelle and that hosts lovely concerts in summer.

Rouffignac is not my favorite cave, but that's because it is mainly bear scratchings and not chromatic art. Its temperature is almost exactly the same as every other cave in the Dordogne - about 51 F - and does not vary according to outside temperatures.

Michael

<i>but that's because it is mainly bear scratchings </i>

Even at the end of the train ride? Or the row of mammoths?

StCirq

They are black contour drawings (and engravings.) Maybe they've discovered some chromatic art since I was last there, but I don't recall any.

Michael

It's all black line drawings, interestingly more recent than the chromatic ones in other caves. Perhaps because of the length of the ride and the need to fill time, Rouffignac has always presented more discussion on how this represents artistic creation, of which a primary example are the final drawings (a dozen or more superimposed ones) which the artist could never have seen in their entirety because he could never have taken the distance to see them whole. Perhaps the presentation has been standardized. In the past, each guide gave his own distinct twist to the general narrative, which obviously would not be the case for the prerecorded versions.