La Dordogne Caves

Lascaux II is the most famous and I really enjoyed it. You'll need a car to get there. You get tickets at the Tourist Office in Montignac, and then drive to the site a few miles away.

Another really interesting site nearby is La Roque St Cristophe. Not prehistoric, but people lived in the caves to hide from the Vikings. See photos: https://www.google.com/search?q=la+roque+st+christophe&rlz=1C1CHBF_enCA942CA942&sxsrf=APq-WBsCvrOpGxJiJyngg2y0zp5e7eg0RQ:1645120338258&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj_kf_qpof2AhXOkYkEHWZTCxwQ_AUoAnoECAIQBA&biw=1536&bih=722&dpr=1.25

When I was there last October, Lascaux II was not open but Lascaux IV was. I was on a Road Scholar tour and we visited 3 caves, Rouffignac, Lascaux IV and Pech Merle. You'll get lots of opinions on which ones and no concensus, lol.

I connected most with Pech Merle - I think because there is a petrified human footprint from 20,000 years ago and because they used a lot of negative hand images in their art it seemed very personal to me.

https://en.pechmerle.com/

Roufignnac was cool because of the Mammoths and there were actually paintings of bison which looked just like the bison I see in Yellowstone, lol.

Lascaux IV was probably my least favorite although it has the best art. It's a reproduction although you'd not really realize it, it's that good. This was a bigger cave, more groups going thru, more commercial than the others. It's not that I didn't like it or was not impressed by it, I just liked the others more. It's certainly the "star" of the area.

While you are in the area, the National Prehistory Museum at Les Eyzies was excellent.

editing to add: I checked to see and find that Lascaux II is closed to the general public and is open only to groups at this time. It was the first reproduction of the original Lascaux cave. They do not allow anyone into the original cave as too much damage was being done due to the presence of visitors.

https://archeologie.culture.fr/lascaux/en

Font du Gaume is the real deal and the best real cafe with amazing artistic polychromatic art still open to the public. Hands down the best. they limit entry to about 80 a day and the rules constantly change. Last time I was in the area you had to line up at dawn for one of the rare spots. Sometimes it is possible to reserve on line -- so pay attention to this in the months leading up to your visit to score a spot.

Peche Merle is hard to get to but has the lovely spotted horses but not much else -- it is a beautiful cave.

Roffignac takes you underground in a little train and is interesting and the art is the real deal -- it is drawings and much less impressive artistically than Font du Gaume or Lascaux

We cannot visit Lascaux so the replicas are the best we can do -- definitely worth seeing. There are several abris in the area that are also interesting. Our ancestors didn't live in caves but they did live in the abris.

The museum at les Eyzies is excellent and has a lot of videos of people making and using the kinds of stone tools on display

I’ll just add my general agreement that all the caves listed above are fantastic.

We also did Gouffre de Padirac, which is a huge underground cave system (no art), with walkways, a boat ride, and a gorgeous river. The colors in there were beautiful. If you are fit/brave, walk down instead of riding the elevators. We had a great time.

Here’s a few pictures and some basic info: https://www.visit-dordogne-valley.co.uk/discover/natural-heritage/prehistoric-caves/gouffre-padirac

I suggest you get a guide that lists the caves and pick out ones close to your lodgings. Then, google to find out their systems for visitor admissions. My own preference is reservations. One of the caves has had a 1st come 1st serve system which resulted in folks coming earlier and earlier to secure one of the spots. That seems to me a highly visitor-unfriendly arrangement, but maybe that has changed since we were there.
Another spot that no one has mentioned is l’Abri du Cap Blanc, a 42 ft. frieze, picturing horses carved in relief, located along the road very close to Les Eyzies. You must go in with a guide. The visit takes about 1/2 hour. When we visited, we didn’t need reservations; but that was many years ago.
The Gouffre de Padirac, mentioned, above, is very worth seeing. Also canoeing on the Dordogne River is fun.

Rick Steves recommends the Cro-Magnon Caves.

All of these listed are 'cro magnon caves'

All of these listed are 'cro magnon caves'

Thanks Janet, I wondered about that.