Font-de-Gaume: The Long Wait for Cave Art

We’re not ones for rising early or waiting in lines, but we arrived at Font-de-Gaume at 7 am to secure a morning tour of the polychrome animal drawings estimated to be 15,000 years old and the oldest example you can visit. It helped we were strategically located five minutes away at Hotel Cro-Magnon. Only 78 people are allowed in each day to protect the cave walls.

Unable to take photos and touch the cave walls, we entered the narrow cave and learned quickly it was worth the wait. The link above should give you an idea of what we saw but to be there and imagine these drawings, some showing motion among the bison and horses, was remarkable. And they’re serious about not touching the walls. A Swedish man leaned against the wall and was immediately scolded by our otherwise lovely guide until he acknowledged what had happened.