I just secured reservations for the La Grotte de Font-de-Gaume, (I hope!) but I could have sworn I read in the book that you could no longer book reservations ? Did I get scammed perhaps? This website also sells reservations/tickets for Carcassonne. Do we need to purchase advance tickets to Carcassonne?
This is the website: https://www.sites-les-eyzies.fr/en/
Thank you!
Posted by
Paris
7301 posts
That's definitely the official website and yes, reservations (months ahead in high season!) are an absolute must for Font de Gaume. Congrats for getting them!
Posted by
OP
Bay Area, CA , usa
89 posts
WHEW!! Well, thank you for that reassurance! What Luck!!
Posted by
1258 posts
You used to not be able to do reservations, you just had to show up. I'm glad to know we can now do that as France is my destination in a couple of years.
Posted by
OP
Bay Area, CA , usa
89 posts
Well thank you for clarifying! I DID read that, then. I just feel like I won the lotto getting tickets on such short notice. It is a tour in French, and I only speak English, but I am sure I can figure most of it out and LOVE learning! So excited!
Posted by
Chicago
8552 posts
The rules on that constantly change. First we reserved, then the next time, you had to show up and sit in numbered seats -- it changes constantly. Glad you were able to reserve and that it appears to be the official site.
Posted by
Loire Valley
824 posts
As a result of covid most websites are now out of date. You have to pre-book, and you bought your tickets on the National Monuments site
Posted by
Louisiana, USA
370 posts
Shelley, we toured La Grotte de Font-de-Gaume and it is wonderful! Our tour was in French because the English tour was all booked up. But there were two other couples on the tour, one from Switzerland and the other was French, but they spoke English. The tour guide asked if they would mind if the tour was in English, and the Swiss couple said they would prefer it, and the French couple didn't mind, so the tour was in English. Not saying you'll get this lucky, but we can hope! The tour guide was really nice and gave a great tour. I'll never forget it.
Posted by
Tucson
4183 posts
We went there in 2009. We had a local tour guide who made the reservations for us. It is truly amazing.
Be aware that there's a significant walk up to the entrance to the cave. The cave is very tight inside. As a result you cannot take anything into it but the clothes you're wearing.
It may be different now, but there was a place next to the entrance to leave purses, backpacks, cameras, essentially anything that the tour guide sees as problematic, in lockers behind a locked gate.
There was a woman in our small tour group who was adamant about taking her purse. She had a choice. Put it in the locker or walk back down with it and not see the cave. She ultimately acquiesced to putting her purse in a locker.
You are going to thoroughly enjoy the cave paintings. And don’t discount Lascaux II. It is well worth the loss of breath you’ll have when you see the magnificent replicas that have saved the original.
I haven't see any of the other Lascaux replicas, but this makes me want to see all of them.