We are planning our 3 days in Dordogne - we will be there in June. Any experiences or suggestions on which caves you'd recommend we visit. Thanks as always for your input!
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Chicago
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The gold standard is the Font du Gaume but reservations are long gone for that through October at least. You can arrive at 7:30 or so in hopes of getting one of the 53 tickets allocated per day. The box office opens at 9:30; there are numbered seats so you know if you are one of the 53 before committing the time.
Lascaux II is a replica but well worth it since the natural polychrome caves like Lascaux and Chauvet are not open to the public; we have never had trouble getting a tour in English on the day. Ticket office in Montignac. WE enjoyed Roffignac in which you ride in a small train way into the mountain; the art is far less impressive than Font du Gaume or Lascaux but it is still the real deal and interesting.
Pech Merle is a beautiful cave with many limestone formations and has the famous spotted horses but IMHO is much less interesting than these others with relatively little cave art beyond those horses.
There is an abris near Montignac (St. Christoph) which was used by Cro Magnons and then by medieval Europeans as a fortress which is interesting to visit. And be sure to do a canoe trip on the Dordogne (not the Vezere which is comparatively boring).