Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Caves in France

The only picture I have from the inside of a cave in France.
Yes, that is me in the middle with the black wind breaker on.
Since reading Jean Auel's book, Clan of the Cave Bear, I have wanted to see the prehistoric caves in France. This was up there close to the top of my list. I wanted to see the cave paintings and feel what it felt to be tucked away living in a cave.
It was dark, but it felt safe.
No one is allowed in Lascaux anymore, as the paintings are fading;
so they built an exact replica to walk through nearby. All we could see of the original is the forest of trees surrounding it. I wish I could have taken pictures to show you the inside, but
they were not allowed in either cave we visited.
The second cave we visited was the actual cave, called Gouffre de Padirac.
Here is the hole in the ground from above. We traveled down many stairs and walked along a walkway and at the bottom of the cave arrived at a river. There were small boats with boatmen to paddle us along the river under the ground to see beautiful stalactites and share some of the history with us. Thankfully our boatman knew some English; so he did the tour in both French and English. Even just hearing in French, it was beautiful. Thankfully, there was an elevator to return to the top. Whew! That would have been some climb.
Have any of you been fascinated by caves? Sometimes they can be scary to enter, but these two were a joy to see and I could check one more thing off my list of sights I have dreamt of seeing. What's on your list of sights to see? Dream big and dreams can come true.

Just a note, if any of my travels intrigue you and you start to plan your dream come true adventure, I would love to answer any questions you might have and give you tips on planning a trip. I had so much fun planning this trip and then seeing it actually happen.

7 comments:

Jeanne said...

Thanks for all you share
Love Jeanne

Rebecca said...

Oh, such amazing images here! Beautiful! Thanks for sharing them and thanks for visiting the Tea Society...

It was lovely meeting you last night at Mr. Toast's Tea:)

parTea lady said...

I also read Clan of the Cave Bear many years ago. That must have been very interesting seeing those caves. I'm afraid I don't do well in underground environments, but I enjoyed seeing the pictures.

Angela McRae said...

LOVE the photo of you in the cave! You really did have the adventure of a lifetime, didn't you!

Anonymous said...

This was really interesting Marilyn. Thankyou. I'm glad you managed to see something that was a dream of yours. On my list of sights I dream of seeing are Banff and Jasper in Canada,and big dreams are Denmark and Nova Scotia.I once dreamt of travelling the world when I was younger and managed to do so with a backpack.Back then,while in France I fulfilled a wish to go to the Pyrenees and Lourdes. Thanks to blogs like yours which are informative and inspiring,I intend to do the Jurassic Coast and southern coast of England, hopefully in a few years time.It is both humbling and exciting when dreams come true.

Mary said...

Even though that last month-long trip to France in Oct. '08 was mainly to see family, I have to admit the week in Provence, which I planned so carefully (and so enjoyed doing), was the highlight. I had listed many places I wanted to see but missed on the Summer trip the year before, and managed just about all of them.

I still want to visit New Zealand and Scandinavia, and the cities at the top of my list are Prague and Budapest - some day hopefully!!

lascaux caves in france said...

Nice pic. Lascaux is a must visit for Paleolithic cave paintings. The basic designs consist of huge animals. You can see around 2000 figures in this cave. The figures are divided into animals, human beings and abstract things. The Great Hall of the Bulls is very famous. The painting of four huge bulls is amazing. The best time to visit this caves is between July and August.