As we continued our coast to coast pilgrimage of France from North to South, we found adventure in the central region of Dordogne. With its river valley and prehistoric caves, it holds a cornucopia of outdoor activities.
Our first item was a tour of a pre-historic cave. The world famous recreation of the Lascaux caves was our first choice, but the tickets were booked up for a couple of days. So, we ventured to a less well known but equally amazing cave called Grotte du Rouffignac.
This cave was famous for its depiction of wooly mammoths from ten thousand years ago during the last ice age. In addition to mammoths, the cave art included rhinos, horses, bison, reindeer as well as hundreds of claw marks and hibernation beds of giant extinct cave bears.
We boarded a train that slowly clunked through the dark cave as the guide pointed out and explained all the art work and natural features. It was so amazing to see this art made by our ancestors so long ago. The cave had been well-known to locals since at least the 1800s as there was graffiti from this time, but the cave paintings hadn't been discovered until the mid-1900s.
At first, it was thought the drawings of the mammoths were forgeries, but with the discovery of the first preserved mammoth in Siberian permafrost it was discovered that the drawings were authentic. Why? Because the drawings depicted a curious anatomical feature of mammoths that are not shared with modern Elephants - a skin flap over the anus. This flap was confirmed with the first mammoth carcass discovered and matched the drawings in the cave.
The next day we ventured out on an all day canoe trip down the Dordogne river. The canoe company hauled us 8 miles up river to start the journey and then picked up again 5 miles south of their base camp.
The water was cool and refreshing which was nice since it was a sunny and warm day. We paddled lazily down river for about 45 minutes before we found a good rocky beach to play on with a dramatic castle perching on the cliff above. The kids made little rock dams for a while before we figured out we could float down the rapids with the life jackets and actually move fairly swiftly. We repeated this sequence about 10 times down the short stretch of rapids.
We paddled on a while longer stopping occasionally to swim or play on the shore. The kids had their own short paddles and 'helped' us paddle down river.
By early afternoon, Claire was wiped out and wanted a nap, so Laura made a little nest in the nose of the canoe and she curled up there with a towel over the top for shade while we continued our peaceful float.
We stopped at a large town hugging a cliff along the latter part of our route and sought out ice cream. Claire was still knocked out and Laura enjoyed holding her little baby girl.
With Claire awake we realized we were cutting the pick-up time ETA at the end of the route a little close, so we picked up the pace for a world record canoe speed trail over the last couple of miles. We ended up enjoying the late afternoon sun and making our time with 10 minutes to spare.
The next day we took a tour of Lascaux II, a near identical replica of the famous Lascaux caves that sat directly above the museum.
Discovered during WWII by some a school teacher, some boys and their dog, Lascaux contained a plethora of stunning color paintings in a labyrinth cave complex. Containing hundreds of images of bulls, horses, reindeer, lions, bison, hand prints and even one human figure in shades of yellow, rust, brown and black, the caves were an instant international sensation. Millions of people came to visit and explore the caves. Unfortunately, the humidity from people's breath caused a rampant fungus to grow out of control which started to cover and destroy the paintings. So, the caves were eventually closed to the public. Recently though, using laser measurements and professional artists, a replica of the cave down to the centimeter was created at the bottom of the hill from the cave inside a museum.
The replica cave even included the first 150 feet of the labyrinth in exact detail with narrow passages and spacious chambers.
It was amazing to think about our ancient ancestors making the paintings by firelight up to 20,000 years ago. Why did they paint? Why paint almost exclusively animals? It's a mystery, but a very amazing one to behold.
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