Lascaux II

The Lascaux caves lay in our path across to the west coast of France so we decided to stay the night nearby and visit the caves.  It rained and rained while we were in the area, which left us with a very wet impression, but the caves themselves were great.  The original caves, discovered in 1940, were being badly damaged by visitors and were closed to the public in 1963.  But they built an exact replica (so they said) 200m down the hill.  It felt like being in a real cave, and there was still a sense of awe seeing the pictures.  They were much bigger than I had expected, more than life size in some cases, and it was obvious from looking at them they were planned and organised, not some doodling.  Amazing for 17,000 years ago.  We couldn't take any photos inside (something I didn't understand as the caves were only a concrete replica).

The lovely rainy town of Montignac near the caves.  We camped alongside the river.