Caverne du Pond d'Arc -- a new attraction for your visit to southern France

To be clear here this is not a natural cave nor original paintings; this like Lascaux II is a replica of some of the paintings in the recently discovered Chauvet cave. So while the original is 37000 years old, the cave mentioned here is a couple of years old and a copy of parts of Chauvet. We hope to see it this fall, but if you want to see the real deal, Font du Gaume is still by far the best French opportunity for a look at stunning original cave art.

Yes, thank you for the clarification.

We went there last summer. Great half day excursion. You need to buy your tickets days before you go. They do sell out fast. Your ticket will have a time to go to the caves. They only take a few at a time. There is a decent cafe on site. A bit expensive, but .... nothing else is around. You could do a picnic if you wish. We saw our first snake in France there. It was about 3 ft. long and light green in color.

The site is a replica of the original cave, but still a good trip. If you can, be sure to book a tour that has an English speaking guide. Ours was in French and we did not get all that she said.

thanks John -- we wondered if tickets ahead were necessary and you answered that. We will definitely book them. At Lascaux II it is fairly easy to get English tours with little wait -- apparently the Chauvet replica is not as high volume?

Just for the fun of it,, you might want to watch the film "Cave of Forgotten Dreams" its on Netflix, and others about the Chauvet Cave. It will give you a little background and prep for the visit.

I saw it in 3D and it was worth seeing it that way if you can. It is now available on netflix. Well worth the watch since non of us will ever see the actual cave.

janettravels44. When I was there, they only had maybe 5 tours a day in English. The rest were in French and maybe a few in German and or Spanish.