Exploring the land of castles and caves

 

The Dordogne region of France, "The Land of 1001 Castles," has become one of my new favorite places. The green, rolling hills with a castle on nearly every outcropping, thanks in part to the Hundred Years War between France and England, makes this almost a fairy-tale landscape.

We stayed in the Beynac part of Beynac-et-Cazenac, a tiny town of the local yellow stone nestled beneath a cliff and topped with a 12th-century castle, where Richard I of England supposedly once stayed. The town and the castle almost made us feel as though we were living in another era.

I can't include photos of the highlight of our trip--visiting the caves with prehistoric paintings. We were fortunate to visit the cave of Font de Gaume. It is one of only three caves in the world that features polychrome figures (animals painted in more than one color), which is still open to the public. 

Font de Gaume does not take reservations. We got up early and waiting in line for two hours to make sure we got in, because only about 50 people a day are admitted, and this cave does not take online reservations. Visitors are limited to protect the cave from bacteria and deterioration by the carbon dioxide exhaled in our breath.

We were guided into the cave through very narrow passages and allowed to stay only 30 minutes. The guide illuminated the paintings briefly, and used a lighted pointer to trace the outlines of the figures. 

 

To think these paintings were created an estimated 14,000 to 17,000 years ago sent shivers down my spine. But the time period is only an estimate. There are many mysteries to the caves. We do not know why they were painted, we can only guess. No one lived in the painted caves or used them for burials, so it is thought they were used for religious or ceremonial purposes.

At Font de Gaume, because only one of the paintings used charcoal, only that painting could be accurately dated. The supposition is that the fat lamps and other artifacts found in the caves date from the period that the paintings were created. But to me, that is like some future archeologist finding an iPhone in the Sistine Chapel and thus dating the chapel to the 21st century! 

It's a small world, though. While we were waiting in line to visit Font de Gaume, we chatted with a French man who lives in LA now. Guess what? He used to work at Gerard's Relais de Lyon in Bothell, about three miles from where we live! Not only that, but another woman who was waiting there had graduated from Bothell High School, Kevin's alma mater (though much later than he).  She now lives in New Zealand. Doesn't that make you wonder how many people you encounter who have a connection to the place you live, but you never find out? Talk about six degrees of separation!

We also visited Pech Merle, a little further south in the Lot region. Sadly, because Pech Merle is privately managed, the owners are not as careful about preserving the paintings, and allow many people in (about 700 a day, as opposed to 50 at Font de Gaume).  The cave itself was spectacular, with highlights of geological formations and the  paintings, images of potted horses, surrounded by six handprints. (Research has shown that most of the hands in the prehistoric caves are female.)

Finally, we visited Lascaux II, a recreation of the Lascaux cave that was closed to preserve the paintings for posterity. I had not expected to be moved by that reproduction, but it was amazing! It has been painstakingly re-created. Five years were spent forming the cave with materials and sculpting it so that the forms are accurate to within one centimeter of the actual cave.  Then another six years were spent finishing the paintings, also reproduced exactly as they were, using the same techniques that researchers had determined were used by the original cave artists. When we walked into the cave, I was almost overcome.  

Long ago, one Christmas, Kevin had given me a large book of the final photographs that were taken at Lascaux before the cave was sealed. Even having viewed the photos in the book, seeing the cave was an emotional experience.  Seeing all the caves was an emotional experience.

In one way, nothing can replace seeing the real paintings, as we did at Font de Gaume and Pech Merle. But taken all together, we were very pleased to have experienced every one, and Lascaux II simply added another dimension. I'd love to go back to the land of castles and caves.