Lascauxll & lV

Lascaux IV is more recent, and more extensive.

Thanks, Simon.

Lascaux II was an attempt to recreate the cave -- and as a result it is harder to shuffle large numbers through.

1V is similar to the Chauvet recreation which is laid out in a way to push more people past the painting recreation. (it is quite marvelous as are the Lascaux recreations)

Hi Janet,
we saw the 1st reproduction of Lascaux many years ago which I'm imagining was Lascaux ll. So do I understand correctly that Lascaux lV shows the same paintings but laid out and something which does not closely resemble the cave?
PS: thanks again for your remarks on Mont Saint Michel.

On the contrary, Lascaux IV is an exact replica of the cave. According to RS:
Lascaux I--the original, no tours
Lascaux II--first attempt to recreate, 90% of the paintings from the original; guided tours only
Lascaux III--traveling exhibit
Lascaux IV--newest "razzle dazzle" replica, 100% of the original

I have not visited yet, but it sounds from RS as if II is a quieter experience, and IV sounds "razzle dazzle" as he says, with lots of people, tour buses, interactive displays, etc.

Interesting. At Chauvet, they created the paintings in a cave like setting but with easier pathing for continuous groups to run through. When you are on the tour, you can see the groups ahead of and behind you. I thought they had done that for Lascaux IV. II was done with one cave and thus one tour at a time.

Forgive me for hijacking your post, Kay, but does anyone know if there are still any English tours of Lascaux IV? It seems a guided tour is compulsory, and our son speaks no French, mine is rusty, and my husband probably doesn't want to annoy the other tour-goers by translating everything. When we last booked (ill-fated trip scheduled for June 2020), there were a few English-language tours, but I don't see any now.

We went to Lascaux IV in October and we were on an English tour, booked in advance. It was very interesting and I recommend it. I’ve not been to other caves to compare it.

Thank you, Andrea. Perhaps as we get closer to our planned visit (June), there will be some English tours on the schedule--or maybe I'm too late already!

No problem at all, Meg. The question about English tours is one that I should probably have been asking as well. I'll see what I can find.

Hi again Meg, I just tried to do a dry run to book tickets for Lascaux lV. The prestige visit sounds like it is an actual guided tour (2 hours) but when I clicked on "buy tickets" it took me to the next page from where I got exactly nowhere. I also tried clicking on "tickets" at the top. The information seems to be slightly different but maybe it's talking about the same thing. Okay, new plan: I got a little further when I clicked on the flag for France rather than England.My computer to automatically translates French to English and so this seems a better way to get information. If, indeed information is gettable. I thrashed around for a while. It looks like audio guides are available for one hour visits in various languages and should be booked ahead. I couldn't find any further information for the prestige visits. I'll bet there's a web address for tourist information in Sarlat. If so, I would try emailing them as they know what's going on. The problem with waiting until one arrives in Sarlat is that the tickets may be sold out by then. This happened to a friend of mine when she was visiting. I was able to get a direct link to buy tickets through the tourist office. The tourist office was also able to tell me when in the following weeks tickets were available. But by the time I sent her the information and she was able to get to the website the tickets were gone. I wish you much luck with the French websites. BTW, have you visited Font de Gaume? Absolutely stunning. It would be my 1st pick.

Hello, Kay, and thank you. I was able to book tickets today for our June trip--there appears to be one English tour each day at 11:10. If you go to "My tickets" at the top of the main Lascaux page (https://lascaux.fr/en), it takes you here:
https://ticketsdordogne.com/en-GB/site?site=2005551963760400035

and then you see the guided tour, and you go through several screens to choose the number tickets, choose the month, then the date, then you see all the tours at different times, most with French flags, and the one English one at 11:10.

And thank you, Meg, for the specific steps! I’ll try that when I get back to my computer. I’m glad that you were able to get tickets. It would be a shame to go all the way to the Dordogne And miss something you really wanted to see. Have a great trip!

Just booked for a Tuesday in May using meg99's link. Over 30 spots were available for the 11:10 English tour, the only one for that day.
They emailed tickets for print out. Cost: 21 euros each for a one-hour guided tour.

Thanks to all,

Chris