Caves In The Dordogne and Lot

[artnbarb]

OK, thanks! As I said, I really do LOVE caves in general, and these caves have so much more than most, but once I looked at the list (even tho I did include Roque St Cristophe), I was afraid that I had gone a tad overboard.

Font do Gaume and Pech Merle are both must-sees, Roque St Cristophe sounds interesting, and I'l put Lascaux and Rouffignac on the 'maybe' list for now. We have 7 nights in St Cyprien and 4 nights in Cahors, so, weather permitting, we should be able to see as many as we want.

@Pauline , thanks for the offer, and if we decide to see Lascaux I'll contact you. I'll have my phone so we can text for free.

 

[Dana]

Barb, what else do you planning to visit while based in Cahors, besides Pech Merle? You can do Cahors itself in a day-it's not very big. Classic options include a day at Rocamadour and the Gouffre de Padirac (another cave! but unforgettable), or the abbey at Moissac to the south, with one of the best Romanesque cloisters and tympanums (nice to compare it with Cahors cathedral) in SW France.

 

[artnbarb]

Right now I'm trying to put together activities for each day, to get an idea of what's possible, what cute village or great restaurant is on the way to a specific site, etc. For 4 days in Cahors, this is what I'm thinking, and the questions I still have.

We'll be driving from our rental in St Cyprien to Cahors on Sunday, May 8. It's a French holiday, but I don't know what the holiday is or how it might impact our day. We won't be able to check-in to our rental in Cahors until 4 p.m., so I'm still not sure where we should stop or what we should plan to do - the drive takes just over an hour, or 1.5 hours, depending on the route we take. The longer route takes us east, then south on the A20 to Cahors. The shorter route is more directly south, on a smaller road, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Anyone familiar enough with this area to comment?

We'll then have 3 full days in Cahors. Pech Merle will take one morning or afternoon for sure. What to do with the rest of that day?

Also under consideration are the wine-growing villages along the Lot to the east of Cahors, and St Cirq Lapopie, Calvignac (the hilltop part of the village), Marcilhac sur Célé, and St Martin de Vers, all recommended by Americana in Parigi over on ST.

How to choose, and how to plan for these days is giving me fits because our time is so limited. For this reason we may want to visit Rocamadour from our base in St Cyrpien. I'm not planning on Gouffre de Padirac at all. Moissac is about an hour south of Cahors, but right now I just don't see how it will fit in. If we plan a full day, or at least the better part of a day for driving thru wine country, a visit to St Criq laPopie for the same day we visit Pech Merle, and the other villages recommended above, I'm not even sure we'll have time to enjoy Cahors and it's medieval bridge!

The drive from Cahors will be on Thursday, and will take close to 6 hours. (Google says 5.5 hours, so I'm sure it will take even longer than 6!) I'll be anxious to find our hotel and turn in the car, so there won't be any time for sightseeing along the way.

Any advice on how to make the most of our limited time in Cahors is most welcome!

 

[Dana]

Hi Barb, The May 8 holiday shouldn't impact your drive at all to Cahors. Certainly don't bother with the A20, no matter what. If you can't arrive before 4pm, I'd suggest doing a scenic route- follow the Dordogne river to Domme, cut down at Salviac towards Fumel. Along the way you can turn off a few minutes for Les Arques (great Romanesque church, possible lunch at La Recreation, that if you book...); have a look at the Château de Bonaguil (very striking on the outside, not really worth going inside unless you're very keen on castles), then carry on up the Lot to Cahors through Puy l'Eveque (stopping for a coffee chez nous!) and at Prayssac, crossing the river Lot to take the scenic route through the wine country to Cahors via Albas, Luzech, Caix (Queen of Denmark's castle), Caillac and Mercues.

St Martin de Vers is on the way to Pech Mele; after or before that you can do St Cirq Lapopie and then and Marcilhac sur Célé. So that's another day. A day in Cahors will reveal all its charms, don't worry. So you could do Rocamadour from Cahors, methinks.

 

[Ann]

Dana's advice is perfect-- we were lucky enough to spend 2 weeks in Puy l'Eveque last October and got to meet Dana and Michael. Personally I'd skip Rocamadour, which is incredibly touristy, and go instead to Figeac, which is a lovely town with beautiful architecture, about an hour from Cahors.

 

[artnbarb]

Thank you both, my plans are really starting to take shape!

 

[artnbarb]

Does anyone know if you can reserve online for Font De Gaume this year?

 

[Pauline]

I just checked their website and it is confusing. They refer to booked tours. When we were there we got tickets in the morning and there were many tours each day.

From the website:

Opening times for the Font de Gaume cave:
May 15th to September 15th, 9.30 a.m. to 5.30 p.m.
September 16th to May 14th, 9.30 a.m. to 12.30 p.m. and 2 p.m. to 5.30 p.m.

Number of tickets reserved for advanced bookings: 26 per day
Number of tickets sold on the day of the visit: 52 admissions per day

Times for booked tours:
- Low season: 3.15 p.m./4 p.m.
- High season: 1.30 p.m./2.15 p.m.

 

[artnbarb]

Some tour books suggest that booking online happens some years but not others. It looks fairly close to where we're staying (St Cyprien), so my plan is to drive up there early one morning on one of our first days there, just in case we need to go back another day.

 

[Dana]

That sounds like a good idea, Barb- but perhaps an even better one would be for me to ring them and find out exactly what's what (and what time, for instance, the tour in English happens...I couldn't see any info on that on their website). If it is possible to book an English tour in advance that really would be the best, I would think, especially if numbers are now limited to 78 a day.

 

[artnbarb]

I would certainly be interested in an English language tour, but unfortunately I've already paid for the tour. I'd be willing to switch our booking, but who know if that's even possible. I can sent you our booking info if you think it's worth a shot!

 

[Dana]

Sure, send the booking info (and if it's possible to change it, let me know if there's any time when you can't go). The worst they can do is say non.

 

[artnbarb]

Thank you! I'll have to scan the form because the email doesn't show correctly. Where can I find your email address?

 

[Dana]

It's on our website, https://www.facarospauls.com/.

 

[nola44]

Hi art&barb (and everyone), I've been away from the forums awhile but got some good tips here when I was planning last year. We had our 5 nights in Sarlat-la-Caneda last October and had some of these same decisions to make. We ended up with a busy itinerary but saw so much. It's such a beautiful area, I look forward to going back.

I wrote it up here www.herewegoagain-france2015.blogspot.com but this is what we did, all from Sarlat:
Day 1 Gouffre de Padirac, Rocamadour, Carennac, Martel, Collonges-la-Rouge.
Day 2: Walk through Sarlat's market day, Lascaux II, St. Leon zur Vezere for picnic lunch, La Roque St. Christophe, Rouffignac.
Day 3: Pech Merle, St. Cirq LaPopie for lunch, Cougnac, brief visits to La Roque Gageac and Domme.
Day 4: Castles: Castelnaud, Beynac and Milandes and a gabarres trip from Beynac.
We loved our meals at L'Instant Delice (x2) and Le Grand Blue in Sarlat. We also loved our picnic by the Vezere river in St. Leon and our lunch at Lou Bolat in St. Cirq LaPopie.

 

[artnbarb]

thank you @nola44 ! More notes, more restaurants!

 

[Marcy]

Barb, upon your return I'd love to hear about your cave visits. We'll be in the area in June and I've already booked Pech Merle based on the recommendations on this thread (thank you, all!). It doesn't seem I can book any others online but would love to hear your experiences.

 

[artnbarb]

We visited 4 caves, and here are my thoughts: First of all, I LOVE caves, especially living caves. I love stalagmites and stalactites, and I love it if/when they turn off all the lights for the absolute darkness! I'm from Kentucky, home of Mammoth Cave, and my grandson and I used to visit all the smaller, local caves every summer. And then the added bonus of drawings done 25,000 years ago by men and women who were just like us, who had the same size brain, well it just stirs my imagination! The caves span about 10,000 years. Some caves had mastodons and reindeer while others did not because they had disappeared (at least from the area) by then.

Pech Merle was far and away our favorite. It had everything I love about caves AND lots of great, large, strong images. We read the English handout before we descended, then were able to refer to it once in the cave - and our guide spoke enough English to offer details and answer questions.

Rouffignac, the cave where you take a tram down into the cave, was probably 2nd on our list. We lucked out and were able to tag along with a group from London, so the tour was in English. (Altho the guide's accent was sooo heavy we missed a lot of details!) The images are fairly easy to see.

Lascaux II had amazing images, and it's exceptionally well done, but you still know in your heart that it's a replica, so that somehow diminished it for me. Lascaux XV, now scheduled to open at the end of the year, will be larger, and if I was in the area I would definitely want to check it out.

Font du Gaume was probably our least favorite. We were there on Monday, May 2 at 8:30 a.m. for the 9:30 opening. Only 52 people are allowed in per day. Apparently if you book far enough in advance you can get tickets online, but I was told the online reservations are sold out thru October. There was only one spot in the first English speaking tour but we booked the next one at 11:15. The drawings in this cave are very faded and difficult to see.

We also enjoyed La Roque St. Christophe, but never made it to the pre-history museum in Les Eyzies-de-Tayac because we had good weather and wanted to be outdoors.

 

[Marcy]

Thanks so much Barb, I really appreciate your perspective. I'm anticipating that our family will love the caves too. I don't anticipate we'll be able to fit in 4 cave visits but now you have me wondering if we might!